If one person’s reply decides your whole mood, you’ve handed them a job they never applied for.

Handing your state over to somebody else’s reply time gives a person a job they never applied for and could not do well. Their silence almost always means a busy afternoon rather than a verdict. Meanwhile a whole day gets held hostage by something that was never about you.

When you catch yourself waiting, put the phone down and start something that needs both hands. Assume the dull explanation, since it is usually the correct one. If it keeps happening with the same person, that is a conversation to have rather than a mood to sit in.