impatience

Impatience is a negative affective and motivational state characterized by dissatisfaction with delays or obstacles to goals, accompanied by a readiness to act and a preference for faster outcomes. It can arise as a transient response to waiting or as a relatively stable trait in some individuals.

Causes and contributing factors include situational delays, uncertainty, high personal or societal emphasis on speed, cognitive load, fatigue, and stress. Individual differences such as impulsivity, temperament, intolerance of ambiguity, and cultural norms regarding time influence how readily impatience arises.

Manifestations range from observable behaviors—checking clocks, fidgeting, interruptions, hurried speech—to emotional signs such as irritability or anger. Impatience can lead to premature decisions, reduced information gathering, and diminished consideration of consequences, particularly under time pressure.

Effects can be mixed. In some contexts, impatience motivates rapid action or prioritizing urgent needs; in others, it undermines decision quality and harms relationships or perceived self-control.

Management and coping strategies include cognitive reframing to shift emphasis from fixed timelines to process steps, setting realistic schedules with buffers, breaking tasks into smaller milestones, practicing mindfulness and stress reduction, and reducing friction in processes that cause delays.

In research, impatience is studied in psychology and behavioral economics, often via self-report scales and behavioral tasks assessing waiting tolerance or delay discounting. Cross-cultural and developmental studies show variability in how impatience is valued and managed.