The line for the roller coaster is scarier than the ride. Anticipation always oversells.

Anticipation oversells nearly everything. Waiting stretches a thirty-second drop into forty minutes of imagining the drop, and imagination keeps adding detail because it has nothing else to do. The real thing arrives, takes less time than the wait did, and is rarely the version you rehearsed.

When you notice yourself standing in a long mental queue, shorten the waiting rather than the task. Book the appointment sooner, take the earlier slot, get it over with before lunch. Most of the suffering was in the standing around.