67. People Are Happier When They’re Busy

Consider this scenario: You’ve just landed at an airport and have to walk to the baggage claim to pick up your luggage. It takes you 12 minutes to walk there. When you arrive, your luggage is coming onto the carousel. How impatient do you feel?

Contrast that with this scenario: You’ve just landed at an airport, and the walk to the luggage carousel takes 2 minutes. But then you stand around waiting 10 minutes for your luggage to appear. How impatient do you feel now?

In both cases it took you 12 minutes to pick up your luggage, but chances are you are much more impatient, and much unhappier, in the second scenario where you have to stand around and wait.