A long layover is annoying until you realize it’s the only quiet hour you’ve had all month.

Dead time and free time can be the same hours wearing different labels. An unplanned gap is only wasted if you had somewhere better to be, and usually you did not, you just had the habit of being busy. The annoyance is often about losing control rather than losing the time.

When something is cancelled or delayed this week, do not immediately fill the hole. Sit in it. Read, walk the terminal, call the person you never call, or do nothing at all and find out what your own head sounds like.