Wasting My Time

One of my pet-peeves is when people waste my time. Whether it be a meeting that doesn't start on time, an ineffective teacher, or the lack of effort from other people. Those who know me well know not to waste my time, and if you do waste my time, there had better be a damn good reason for it. For this reason alone, Thursday was a miserable day for me.

I was slotted to lead a discussion about William James' The Principles of Psychology as well as John Dewey's The Reflex Arc in my History & Systems of Psychology class. I put a lot of time into my handouts: Reading both readings three times, discussing the readings with my professor for over an hour, creating open ended questions to promote discussion, and doing additional research to give my classmates more information. All of these things took up a great deal of time and as a consequence, I missed out on having quality time with Brian this week. I went to class and for an entire 90 minutes all I got from my classmates were blank stares and sighs of boredom. It was like grasping straws that weren't there. I felt as though my time spent on creating the handouts and attempting to lead a discussion was a waste, and I still feel that way. As a result of this massive failure, I analyzed and agonized over what went wrong. I came up with nothing and asked my professor for advice on how to better my discussion leading for my next slotted lead day. He has no ideas. So I am back to square one. I am still feeling as though my efforts were a waste of time and I'm trying to find the energy and enthusiasm to put together another well crafted handout for next time. But wait, it gets better...

So after this wonderful class in which I talked for 90 minutes straight and felt like I was Thumbelina in Shrek's world, I went to my next psych class. The class with the professor who reads, page by page, from the book. I wouldn't go except for the fact that there is a 50-75 question exam every day in that class and missing an exam is just not an option. So he effectively wasted 2.5 hours of my time. The frustration built and by the time I got home I just wanted to sit on the couch and watch tv. But I couldn't do that because that would be just a waste of time.

So there you have it. My #1 pet-peeve. Silly, I know.