You were going to do something. You know you were, because five minutes ago you were standing there with purpose.
Then you picked up your phone.
Not to waste time, obviously. There was a reason.
Nobody knows what the reason was anymore, but we’re confident there was one.
Twenty minutes later you’re watching somebody clean a swimming pool in another country. You don’t own a swimming pool.
This has absolutely nothing to do with your life.
Eventually you resurface, look at the time and experience that very specific little moment:
Oh, cr*p.
Right. Back to it.
Except…
You don’t.
Because apparently once we’ve wasted some time, our preferred recovery strategy is to waste a bit more while feeling bad about the time we’ve already wasted.
That’s magnificent.
It’s like missing an offramp and thinking:
Well, I’ve cocked that up. Might as well drive to Namibia.
And I’ve done it. Plenty (Not the Namibia part 😏)
A task takes longer than planned. I get distracted. Something interrupts me. Suddenly I’m behind, irritated with myself, and the original plan has gone slightly sideways.
That’s normal.
The ridiculous bit is when “I lost an hour” quietly becomes “today’s basically buggered.”
No it isn’t.
It’s 11:17.
Thursday has not been cancelled.
We wait for a cleaner restart. After lunch. Tomorrow. Monday. Next month if we’re feeling particularly committed to doing absolutely bugger-all about it.
The funny thing is, nothing dramatic actually needs to happen next. The original plan might be wounded, but nobody needs to gather the family.
There’s still time sitting there.
Maybe not enough for everything you had planned. Maybe enough for one thing. Maybe two.
Either way, Namibia was never the destination.
The wasted hour happened.
What happens to the next one is where this gets interesting.
THE MOSTLY POINT
The first hour disappeared. Don’t personally escort the next one out the door.
Hey, you reading this — we’ve distracted you long enough. Bugger off and go be productive.
We’ll still be here when you get distracted again.
JOIN THE CHAOS…