Most mornings Natalie and I either walk to work, about two miles through the city, or we drive about 10 minutes. This morning was pretty normal. We left the house around 9am, dropped some things off at the office, and I drove to the parking garage. As I drove through the garage I couldn't find a spot. I went in circles, back tracked, and finally found a spot after some frustration. Once I parked it felt like I was running late. I jumped out of the car, started walking fast toward the stair well, and made a good pace down the stairs. Then I stopped.
What the hell was I rushing for?
I didn't have any meetings. No one was waiting for me to get to the office. I don't have any strict deadlines today, or even this week.
I realized this and quickly regrouped. Instead of going straight into the office, I decided to slow down and head to a coffee shop. I forced myself to reduce the false urgency, opting for a relaxing start to my work day to plan ahead.
Every once in a while I will catch myself in this pattern - rushing for no reason. It could be during a commute, while working on a new feature idea for our products, or more likely when I sit in meetings (my limit is about 45 minutes). The reality is that, in most cases, it's completely made up. After the commute, or after I finish a task, I have no need to "rush" to the next thing. Nothing is waiting, and no one is held up.
This morning was a good reminder of our 7th value:
"Most things are not urgent. Be patient, stay calm, go home."
As a result of this morning's detour I ran into a friend at the coffee shop. He's working on an awesome side project designing prints for race track maps called RaceKrafts. Racing is a hobby of mine, so we had a good time catching up and talking about ways to promote it. If I rushed to work, I would have completely missed this.