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I liked the story Ned Hallowell, author of CrazyBusy and Monday’s Great Ideas general session speaker, used to lead off his presentation. The picture is this: He’s on vacation, and it’s a real vacation, where he gets away from all the rigors and spends time with friends and family without work obligations. He decided to call a friend to set up a joint family outing to a minor league baseball game that evening.

The phone in the rustic cabin was an old, rotary-dial model. Hallowell said he was getting angry that was taking so long to dial the number. By the time he got it dialed, he was in a state of agitation. All this because of 30 seconds of waiting when he had nothing else to do. According to Hallowell, it’s a result of the crazy busy world we live and work in that we are now hardwired to expect speed in everything and get angry at delay whenever it occurs.

I’d love to tell you Hallowell had a magic bullet that would free you from this oppression. He doesn’t. His message was essentially to acknowledge the problem and then actively work to take control of your time. He gave some examples of people able to do just that, and made some strong points about why it is important. But the bottom line is, it is completely dependent on you to create a sane world for you to live in – and the world will fight you at every turn.