Waiting is an energy leak.
One of the biggest energy leaks at work is waiting. Waiting for feedback. Waiting for decisions. Waiting for someone to make up their mind, reply to your email, approve the next step.
We pretend to wait patiently, but we’re actually frozen. Half-distracted. Checking back in. Hovering. Re-reading our own message, wondering if we were clear enough. Did we ask something stupid? Say too much?
Meanwhile, time drips away and nothing else moves forward.
The Frozen State
Waiting doesn’t just waste time. It hijacks your mental bandwidth. You can’t fully commit to other work because part of your brain is still orbiting the thing you’re waiting for. You refresh email. Check Slack. Wonder if you should follow up. Second-guess your original ask.
This is the opposite of productive. You’re neither getting the answer you need nor making progress elsewhere.
The Trading Approach
Design your actions like a trader designs a trade: “If X happens, I do Y.” Clear contingencies. Predetermined moves.
For project decisions, you might decide that if there’s no reply by Friday, you move ahead with Option A. For resource requests, if you get blocked here, you shift the team to the backup priority. For stakeholder feedback, if they don’t object by Thursday, you’ll proceed as outlined.
And say so upfront. Set the expectation and the timeline explicitly.
The Scripts That Work
“If you don’t object by Friday, we’ll move forward.” “We’re planning our sprint now. Let us know tomorrow at the latest if anything’s missing.” “I’ll assume we’re aligned unless I hear otherwise by Wednesday.” “Moving ahead with this approach on Monday if no concerns surface.”
You’re not being pushy. You’re being clear about how decisions get made in the absence of input.
The Mental Shift
Until something changes—answer arrives, deadline passes—it’s out of scope. If the person responsible is taking their time, why wouldn’t you reclaim yours?
You’re not frozen or passive. You’re just not wasting energy on things that aren’t ready to move.
The Strategic Advantage
People who wait without waiting get more done. They don’t get bottlenecked by other people’s pace. They maintain momentum while others get stuck in response loops.
That’s how you wait without waiting. Now you’ve got time again.