Maybe it’s the coffee speaking, but I can really be an impatient person.

I’m not content with waiting around doing nothing in between two tasks that I have set out to do. In general, this isn’t a problem. I can fill the lag time with useful short doings like checking my email, making mental lists of things I need to do, or even writing a blog post. Call this multitasking (I don’t), call this task switching (great NPR article about that here), call it being spazzy, I don’t care. I do it a lot, and you probably do as well. I’m just not content with being patient and waiting for one thing to finish before I start the next.

A large portion of our now fast-paced and digital-driven lives are spent in this perpetual push forward. We watch TV (or YouTube, Netflix, or Hulu) while we cook (if we cook), while we eat (because generally we eat alone), and while we do menial tasks for work in front of a computer (or else we’d either go nuts or fall asleep). The simple chore of sitting and waiting has turned into a game to see with what we can occupy our mind in the interlude between activities.

I’m at a point in the evening right now where I’m done with work, finished supper, have played with the dog, and now can’t figure out what to do. I won’t say I’m bored (which is good because I’d hate to have Mom take a toy away from me as was the rule when we re little), just indecisive. Since nothing has started yet, there is a huge number of possibilities, and its hard to wait while I choose ones over the others. Unfortunately, this sometimes drags out long enough that I do indeed get bored and just go to bed instead. It’s as if I’m assuming that i wouldn’t have gotten anything meaningful done on whatever the chosen task was, so there was no use starting it that night.

Task jumping is sometimes a great thing, and other times is debilitating. When it does pay off, however, patience can be the most beautiful thing in the world.