“I’ll be right there; I’ll just be a minute.”
“I won’t be late; It’ll just take a minute to finish this call.”
“I’ll be ready to go as soon as I address this envelope. It’ll just take a minute.”
How many quick little jobs have to be done in one day? Nothing major, nothing earth shattering, nothing particularly fun or interesting. Only the briefest little tasks that “Just take a minute.” I can fill days; an entire week, with one task after another. Each one, I promise will, “just take a minute.”
And it’s true. Every little task does take only a minute. BUT there are dozens of them. It reminds me of a line in the old children’s book about cats by Wanda Gag: “Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats.” That’s how many “It’ll just take a minute” jobs there are to do all the time every day. Am I the only person who rejoices when an answering machine picks up my call instead of the person I am calling? When I speak to a machine I can leave my message without having to go through the time-taking task of inquiring about the wellbeing of everyone in the family.
From the point of view of the person waiting for someone else, I remember my mother calling us for dinner. If one of us yelled down from an upstairs bedroom,
“I’m ready. I just have to wash my hands.” She’d answer,
“You JUST? If you JUST, then you’re not ready. Don’t waste my time with your “justs.”
And if someone said,
“Alright, I’m coming.”
“Yes, so is Christmas,” was her terse answer.
When I was a young child I always thought that two minutes were longer than fifteen minutes. Because my father would leave us in the car with my mother, while he did his errands. He’d dash out of the car saying,
“I’ll just be two minutes.”
It was always at least fifteen. So naturally, rather than think daddy would ever exaggerate or fib to us, I learned the math lesson that two was greater than fifteen. The expression “I’ll just be a minute” actually means any time from a minute to an hour. This information should be widely disseminated. Then the next time someone says, It’ll just take a minute, the listener can go shopping, take a nap, or fill the gas tank.
MorristownMemos 
Comments on: "IT’LL JUST TAKE A MINUTE" (51)
I haven’t read the post yet, in fact i just started. Very first line and i am scrolling down just to say I love it
Thanks, Arjun, for your kind comment; I appreciate it.
in fact my comment is more apt for the one about cooking. hahaha…I am following you
I’ve been experimenting with making time lapse videos lately.
In those cases an hour gets turned into 30 seconds.
Ronnie, you are in Morristown NJ? I used to live in northeast NJ.
…and you left??? Wow, I hope you found some place wonderful.
Oh yeah we left. Moved to the coastal SC area. We bought a new 3BR, 2 1/2 BA townhouse and our property taxes are $367. No, not a month, that’s for the year.
No more 3 hours on the GSP to get to the shore. We are now minutes from the beach where both parking and beach access is free. And I’ll never so much as look at a snow shovel again.
Lot’s of great wildlife to photograph as you can see from my blog.
It’s also still shorts and T shirt weather here, gonna be upper 70s to 80 all week.
Life is good at the beach. 😀
Good for you; how terrific that you and your family are happy.
Its really truth with a twist, lovely post.
Thank you, Indira. It was good having you comment on my blog.
I love to fill gas thank then go shopping 🙂
In that case, Jake, you don’t mind waiting since you’ll be so busy.
I like in Kenya, East Africa and here a minute could be an hour and even longer especially if its a politician who said it
Yes, Mo, politicians are the same the world over. Thanks for your comment.
Ronnie, one question…which is short and quick: a minute or the eleventh hour?
Mal, I had no idea you were such a trickster!
Appreciate your comments and visit. have a great week ♥
Many thanks, and thanks for looking the blog over.
As a mother, wife, and employee, I hear ya sista.
Yes, I hear you too, reptilesintheice-cream. May I call you reptiles for short?
Absolutely. Bridgette calls me Rep. One of my friends from college RITIC, and some just call me Sadie. OR
You can call me Ray.
You can call me Jay
You can call me Ray-Jay…
I bet you are too young to get that huh?
Not only am I NOT to young to remember, I am too old to remember what it is!!!
🙂
I know this so well and I dread hearing the words ” Yes, I’m coming down now” meaning that they are not, and will not be for quite a while.
We all understand a secret language, which listens between the words to interpret their real meaning, haven’t we?
Men generally have no concept of time do they?
Interesting that you assume men are to blame in this equation.
I love this..and it’s true…the number of times, as a parent, I say, ‘just a sec’ and then on the flip side, expect my kiddo to say how high, when I tell him it’s time to go, wash up, get dressed, etc. What a great reminder!
Oh dear, Bonnie, have I given you yet another reason to question your parenting techniques? Sorry…
No apologies you sweet person…no, just a good reminder of what’s important! 🙂
You are right, Ronnie. Totally, sometimes the regular one-minute things are the ones that I cannot do well, and get me fed up, especially because there are tons of them. Thank you for the post, hence imparting your wisdom. Keep them coming. 🙂
Subhan Zein
Perhaps that’s because you have so many more important things to concentrate on; those one minute jobs are so time consuming and rob us of time better spent.
You’re right, Ronnie. “Just a minute” has robbed me and others of a lot of quality time.
I’m still trying to figure out “football minutes” and “basketball minutes” and “hockey minutes.” It seems no game is ever – exactly “X” amount of minutes long and the time played depends on the game.
All I know is that if my husband tells me there are only 10 minutes left in the game, that calculates to mean anywhere between a half hour to an hour more.
So very true! I’ve not been involved in a career for the first time in my life, since being in Hawaii these past 7 years. When people ask me what I “do,” it’s always difficult to answer. I usually say, “A little of this, a lot of that,” and let it be. But? Lots and lots of little things. And the days go by and by. In the end, I wonder how people with ‘regular’ jobs ever get things done! Plus, with all this technology and Chinese manufacturing, I spend an inordinate amount of time making sure wholesalers and retailers honor their warranties, which in itself can be rather time consuming! It’s a different world out there …
OH, Bela, I had no idea; please write a blog about your career; I’m sure many of us would find it interesting and informative.
Thanks Ronnie, it’s been an interesting road. FYI, http://www.belajohnson.com will get you started if you’re interested … I’m still doing ‘that,’ but not so much here in Hawaii. May get back into radio though, ya never know 😉
Lovely post Ronnie and true!
Don’t know why , minutes are so worthless for teenagers and so valuable for adults.😊
Teens have the wonderful advantage of knowing for sure that they’ll live forever.
I don’t have anything funny to comment about, but if you wait a minute, I’ll think of something.
Do you really mean a minute, or will I have to wait an hour?
Great perspective on time, Ronnie. I also find it interesting how a minute can sometimes feel like a second, and other times like an hour. When my kids were younger, a ten-minute tantrum felt eternal!
That’s a strange case of scientific mystery; ten minute tantrums ARE an hour.
LOL!
Just came across this post and thought it related well to yours. 🙂
http://judysp.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/conversation-with-god/
When I tell my teenager to turn off his video game, he always says, “In a second.” I’ve learned it is never just a “second” but rather a very long string of minutes. Some days my patience for this is better than others…
He sounds like a young man who has learned the quirks of our language very well.
Indeed he has. Well, when he uses words. Not sure grunts and eyerolls qualify. 😉
Give me a minute to think about it.. I’ll get back to you..(another misnomer)
So many ways to put off doing the right thing. And getting back to me is always the right thing.
Okay, I will leave a reply… in a minute.
Your time is up!