blog post – first quarter 2026
killing time
I found myself traveling by road from Chiang Mai to Bangkok recently. It is a 9- to 12-hour drive depending on traffic and weather. I was riding with someone hellbent on setting a record apparently as we made it in just under nine hours even with two quick toilet breaks.
(The way he drove, I almost did not need the toilet breaks.)
Without going into intricate detail, the vehicle we were travelling in was completely filled with items requiring us to move our seats forward such that my legroom was maybe a centimeter more than coach class on the cheapest of cheap ultra-low-cost airlines.
I had my iPhone and my iPad with me to help “kill time”. But as I realized what I was doing, I was struck by how carelessly we treat the most precious of commodities.
Most often, I do not have enough time. Yet here I was trying to make time pass more quickly.
Time seems to be a constant, although Einstein shared with us that time is an illusion given the very same hour can pass differently for various people even though it still takes 60 minutes for both.
In a crisis, one is always battling time. For those responding, time flies by too fast. For those seeking loved ones, the lack of instant information seems like time is dragging endlessly.
We need to be mindful of how time passes for each of our key stakeholders, including our own teams.
I attended a Canadian Armed Forces exercise a few years back where they designed the event to run in real time. At one point, it would be four hours before a search and rescue plane reached the disaster site. During that time, there was plenty to do. However, as an observer, I was able to get a sense of how frustrating those four hours would be for families of those impacted. Despite all that was happening, their single most important need – finding out the status of their loved ones – was not among what could be accomplished during that period. They had to wait all four very long hours.
In that instance, killing time would not something most could even contemplate. Still, it would be necessary to have some activities for children who would not be processing the circumstances the same as adults. For infants, there would also be the need for baby food, milk, nappies, and sleep time.
We need to plan to respond to time as it is experienced by those touched by whatever is unfolding. Not everyone will be the same even though they are grouped together for logistical purposes.
That conversation with myself about killing time during the ride actually occupied me for a reasonable period. Sometimes it is good to use time you planned to kill for much headier purposes.
Be different. Be ready.