Waiting is torture until you know what you’re waiting for. Then it’s just anticipation.

The difficulty in waiting is uncertainty rather than duration. Time passes at the same rate either way; what exhausts you is not knowing whether the thing is coming, which forces your mind to keep running scenarios instead of settling. Name the outcome and the same interval becomes almost pleasant.

Where you can, convert an open wait into a defined one. Ask when you will hear, set a date after which you will follow up, decide what you will do if the answer is no. Certainty about the shape of the wait is usually available even when certainty about the result is not.