Friday, June 23, 2006

Laziness Is the Mother of Efficiency

Yesterday I was reminded of why I never go into work before 9:00 unless I have to. There was an 8:00 meeting, and I was first on the roster. I left my apartment at 7:30, got out on the road, and sat there in my car, staring at tail lights for 10 minutes straight. I think I had moved 100 yards. I could see that it would be a while before I could get on the freeway, so I decided to take an alternate route, and weaseled my way onto another street. This street had some traffic, but at least it was moving, and in no time I was ready to turn back towards the freeway. Predictably, I hit another queue of cars, and this time had no choice but to sit there and wait it out.

While I waited, I called my boss and left him a message telling him I would be late, and pondered the nature of time in one's day. I decided that I liked sleeping much better than sitting in traffic. When I got to the meeting, they had just finished connecting up with the remote attendees, so I didn't actually keep anybody waiting. Next time I'll have to remember to leave much earlier. Why does everyone think they have to get to work at exactly the same time everyone else gets to work? That's such an inefficient assumption in our society, and it's straining the freeway system.

My normal commute to work is 15 minutes. This commute lasted 45. By sleeping in one hour, I add 30 minutes of time to my day.

It's a win-win situation.

2 comments:

  1. Did you, by any chance, see an old man with a walker outpacing you?

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  2. Some in our family use the car pool lanes by riding motorcycles...
    ~ Beck's Mom ~

    ReplyDelete