Second Cup: Have more fun in line

Make the most of lines you can't avoid 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to have a few fallback options for
having more fun. Inline lines can be incredibly frustrating. They

(00:28):
feel like a waste of time on this planet, and
in many cases they are just that torments created because
of someone's mismanagement. But if you can't do anything about
the line's existence, at least you can tolerate the time
instead of wishing precious minutes away. Sometimes we can predict lines,

(00:54):
and sometimes we can't. On my family's recent vacation to
the Virgin Islands, my family was warned repeatedly that for
the home bound leg of the trip, we needed to
get to the airport in St. Thomas three hours ahead
of time. Even my frequent flying husband, who likes to
show up at precisely the moment when the plane boards

(01:16):
and no earlier, thought the warnings sounded ominous. So we
got there early and then proceeded to get through customs
and security in about twenty minutes, and that includes waiting
for my bag to be searched. But then the next day,
when my husband took our eldest kid to camp they

(01:38):
got stuck in a two hour line just to check in.
Who would have thought These days we do almost always
have our phones with us, which can make waiting in
line mildly more tolerable. You can consider it a guilt
free time to scroll around online, looking at pretty pictures

(01:59):
on Instagram or reading the snarky comments on someone's Facebook post.
Or I guess this is really a better idea. You
can do more cerebral things and read through that article
you have been saving, or read a book on the
Kindle or nook app. If you don't have to pay
immediate attention because maybe the line is moving quite slowly,

(02:21):
feel free to put on your headphones and listen to
a podcast or some music. This can help you tune
out other folks who might be doing some of these
other suggestions, like, if it seems appropriate, you could have
a quick and lighthearted chat with the people around you. Now,
this can be risky because if things don't go well,

(02:43):
you can't escape and the other person can't escape either,
which could be awkward for them. But almost everyone, and
let's say a security line in the Caribbean island was
probably just on vacation. You can ask what they did,
what they saw. If it's their first time there, did

(03:04):
they enjoy diving? Would they do it again with that group?
And so forth. Now, if you are in line with
someone else that you know, you can use the opportunity
to chat about life in general. I hope my husband
and son use their time in that to our camp
check in line to bond. Maybe not, but maybe they did.

(03:28):
I actually have some fond memories of waiting in a
line at Animal Kingdom at Disney World a few years ago,
because I was there only with my big kids. The
little ones had left with my husband, and the heat
had broken as the sun went down. It was an
absolutely lovely Florida night. My kids didn't have their devices

(03:49):
with them, and so they chatted with me for the hour.
It might help to look up a list of conversation
starters and ask your partner one of them, as long
as you're considerate of everyone around you. Now, of course,
lines are very different if you've got little kids with you.

(04:11):
Corralling them can be tough, but sometimes a game of
I Spy or giving them little things to play with
like poppets can help. Or hand out the snacks one
gummy at a time. Can get you through something of
a weight dolled out every thirty seconds or so. Well,

(04:36):
at least it's something I would say that, if at
all possible, try not to wait in line with little kids.
Look for any way around it. That's why we have
t s, a pre check and do fast passes when
we can, or any other way that you might be
able to skip a line. But in any case, usually

(04:57):
the time in line isn't and less. It might help
mentally to guess about how long you think this line
is going to be, and then you can make a
rational choice about what to do with that time. So
right now, if you knew you had an hour that

(05:18):
you needed to fill, what would you do with it?
If you had access to your phone, how would you
choose to spend that hour? Think this through ahead of
time and choose to do those things, and then lines
can be mildly less annoying because most lines don't take

(05:39):
too much longer than an hour I mean at least
I hope. And by the way, if you are in
a situation where you are the one managing a queue,
especially if you manage them frequently, please think it through
so you can manage it as well as you can.
Time is precious and having a long and needlessly slow

(06:01):
moving line it's not respectful to your customers or guests.
Try waiting in the line yourself to see what goes wrong.
It will go a long way toward easing the problem.
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

(06:21):
here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod

(06:42):
that's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
podcast at i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast
is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is

(07:05):
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Yeah,