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What Does Hurry Sickness Look Like in Our Lives?

February 7, 2000

"Does this describe you?

* We rush to be first whether we need to or not.  As a matter of principle, we press to be first off the airplane even though we know we will just stand and wait with the others once we get to the baggage claim.
* We press forward, inch by inch, bumper to bumper, in gridlock traffic, incensed if anyone cuts ahead of us even though our lives won't be changed by the five minutes we may 'save,' once we reach our destination.
* We finish each other's sentences and rush ahead of the story to guess the ending, never really hearing the message because we are already elsewhere.
* We skip breakfast or lunch to 'save time" or eat on the go.
* We drum our fingers impatiently or glance frequently at our watch to signal our displeasure at having to wait.
* We use a new tape recorder that speeds voices up twice as fast so we can listen to tapes in half the time.
* Our children are scheduled as heavily as we are, every moment of the day and weekend, with soccer practice, after-school clubs, or computer camps.
* Suddenly, twenty years have rushed through our lives almost unnoticed as we look back at our grown children and wonder where the time went (McGee-Cooper, 1994, p. 14)."

Reference:  McGee-Cooper, A. (1994).  Time management for unmanageable people.  New York: Bantam Books

Are you experiencing hurry sickness?

* Time Management for Unmanageable People is available on loan at the OSU Leadership Center.  A listing of all the Leadership Center's resources is available on our website www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~leaders

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Created: 2009-01-02, Updated: 2009-01-12