The work of waiting includes keeping yourself ready without staying constantly tense.

Waiting is genuinely work, and it has a trap in it. Staying ready feels like it requires staying alert, so you keep the phone close, keep rehearsing the news, and treat rest as a lapse in vigilance, which burns you out before the thing you are waiting for even arrives. Readiness is actually a matter of a few practical preparations plus enough recovery to respond well. Vigilance does not make an answer come sooner.

Set aside a short time each day for whatever preparation is genuinely useful. Outside that window, let yourself do something absorbing without treating it as neglect.