Inefficiency.

I think it's time to address my absolute biggest complaint about anyone and anything in the entire world: inefficiency.

If you ask me what my pet peeves are, I may narrow them down to things like "bad drivers" or "people who can't speak proper English," but what I am really trying to say is INEFFICIENCY.

I just cannot deal with it. If you are driving and need to make a left turn, and you are 4 lanes to the right, you are being inefficient. If you block an intersection because you are too selfish to wait for it to clear, that creates inefficiency. If you walk into a store and block an entire aisle because you don't know what you need or your children are running amok, that creates inefficiency. If you walk into a business and need something, but don't know what it's called or what it looks like, that is inefficiency.

Really and truly, I think much of my residual anger can be attributed to this. People who say, "Hey, I'll [call/come over/do something] at 5:00," who then do so at 6:30 are inefficient. I am not a stickler for punctuality--lord knows I am perpetually 5-10 minutes behind--but I always feel bad, because I know there is wasted time somewhere.

When I am given an assignment (at work or anywhere else), I will check and double check that what I am about to do is what I am supposed to do. This is not because I am incapable of following directions, but because I know that what people say and what they want are not always perfectly in sync. I know that *I* do not want to have to do something over again, so I want to make sure it gets done correctly the first time I do it. This is to prevent inefficiency.

As a result, it drives me absolutely insane when I see people who just don't have a clue. I understand that we all encounter new situations in our lives and that everyone is pretty constantly doing something new. I try to avoid being inefficient (or being perceived as inefficient), so I like to make sure I have an idea of what I'm doing before I jump into doing anything. If I am at Chipotle and someone comes in, gets in line in front of me, dilly-dallies around for a few minutes trying to figure out what they want, gets their burrito put together, then CHANGES THEIR MIND, it makes my hair hurt. Maybe you're new to this place, that's cool... but when there are 14 people behind you who know what they want, wasting our time (and their food) is not cool.

When people come into my library ("my" library) and say, "Well, I need this book... but I don't have the title or author. It's about education," I want to cry. Seriously. I cannot help, and you have just wasted your time AND mine asking me to pull a title out of thin air. The efficient thing to do would be to come to the library with at LEAST a title or author. At LEAST. Preferably both, but at least have one tangible piece of information.

If you pass the 6th grade, you should have a basic knowledge of the English language. Things like YOUR and YOU'RE should be radically different in your mind, and you should know when to use each one. You should stop saying things like, "I seen them things over there," and realize that your lack of grammar skills makes you look amazingly ignorant. Yes, I DO judge you based on your use of the English language. And if you consistently use poor grammar/spelling, I will assume you are inefficient and therefore a waste of my time! :o)

I don't know. Maybe I'm alone in feeling the way that I do. I'm generally a pretty laid-back person. For the most part, people can go about their lives any way they would like. But I just cannot stand inefficiency. I cannot even begin to imagine how much more smoothly the world would run if people could just get a grasp on what needs to be done (and the best way to do it) before they open their mouths or get in their cars.

And that's my thought of the day. :)