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Is it worth your while to wait?

We're always waiting for something. Sometimes, it feels like it might never arrive. But what if the secret to getting what you want lies in the space between things, rather than in the destination itself?

In Ian Samson is Waiting, the presenter offers a delayed deliberation on those moments when someone or something makes us... wait. Is waiting always bad? Or is there gratification to be found in hanging around?

Why do you wait?

“Please hold and you will be transferred to an advisor as soon as possible.” Frustrating words we’ve all had to hear while on hold to someone at the bank, doctor’s surgery or insurance company.

Waiting is something that we all do, every day of our lives. We might be waiting in line at the bar, the checkout, or in front of a terrifying new ride at a theme park. We may be waiting to get a health diagnosis, waiting to fall pregnant or waiting for someone we fancy to text us back. Then there’s waiting for the new Star Wars film, the new Adele album, the H37 bus, or even – waiting for a miracle. We’re all adept at waiting a long time for an awful lot of things.

But, believe it or not, there are a lot of benefits to waiting. After all, good things come to those who wait…

Waiting can help you contemplate life

A lot of waiting we do is in the dentist’s surgery, at the boarding gate, or at the barbers. There’s no denying that waiting rooms are unglamorous places – with hard plastic chairs, lino and stark lighting – where mostly non-events take place. But they can also be vast emotional spaces, the territories of our longings and fears. These are the places where things are about to end or about to begin. The boundary between home and holiday, or an old haircut and a new look. A temporary stop before the final destination.

Rather than chomping at the bit to get out of there, back to work and our daily lives, we should view these calm, quiet spaces as somewhere to contemplate where we are coming from and where we are going. Put down that magazine and use the time to think…

Waiting in line: The psychology of queuing

Evan Davis and guests discuss how companies manage their queues and our expectations.

Waiting helps you to be creative

The most famous waiting in all of literature concerns Penelope, from Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔr’s The Odyssey. She waits for 20 years for her husband Odysseus to return from his adventures, stalling her many suitors. During the daytime Penelope weaves the death shroud for her father and every night she unravels it.

The next time you are lying awake at night, waiting to sleep, try writing down your thoughts and ideas.

Harold Schweizer, a professor of English, has written extensively about the philosophy and practice of waiting and he says, like Penelope, we all engage in two different forms of waiting. In the daytime Penelope waits in measurable time, during which she is responsible for the way she spends it. This is the type of waiting in which we become inpatient to fulfil or consume the object of our desire.

But during the night we, and Penelope, wait differently. “It is during that time that we are most creative,” says the professor, “that we are most imaginative. It is during that time that we begin to have ideas that may be considered artistic” and “aesthetic.” The next time you are lying awake at night, waiting to sleep, try writing down your thoughts and ideas. You might just be coming up with magic.

Waiting can be thrilling

Sam Staunton is the percussion section leader of the Ulster Orchestra. He recalls a symphony where he was required to wait for almost the entirety of the piece, and only play in the very last minute of the performance. “It was absolutely terrifying and thrilling in equal measure,” says Sam. “You have to have just as much nerve as anybody else just to play those few notes at the end.”

We all experience the thrill of waiting. Children wait in eager anticipation to open their stockings on Christmas Day. We enjoy waiting for a birthday party or to see an absent loved one. We might be waiting excitedly for our favourite band to release their long awaited second album. If, when it arrives, we don’t like the new songs, then wasn’t the wait more thrilling than the event itself?

What makes some people early and others late?

Ian McMillan talks to social psychologist and author Oliver Burkeman.

Waiting is living in the present

The instant gratification we get from music and video streaming makes us more impatient. Listening to music on vinyl meant listening to a whole album, waiting in eager anticipation for our favourite song. What do we miss in terms of art and story and music that we would experience if we were willing to wait?

Being impatient won’t make the thing you’re waiting for come sooner – so you should take pleasure from the here and now.

There’s a lot of value to be found in waiting, and learning how to appreciate the wait. We can have an expectation of what might come in the future, but also enjoy what’s happening in the present. Being impatient won’t make the thing we’re waiting for come sooner – so we should take pleasure from the here and now.

As percussionist Sam Staunton says, waiting is “a kind of mindfulness psychology.” Of course waiting can have negative connotations – we might be waiting to be paid or to hear about our next job – “but,” says Sam, “having that forced slowing down of your mind and of what’s going on and appreciating things at a different pace to the rest of your day is a real privilege.”

Hold out, hang on, and enjoy the wait.