I’ve observed this multiple times with number 1.

As to anyone, it has happened to me many times over the course of my life, that after having to hold it for too long, the last minutes, seconds, end up a total rush against the time. There’s always this dramatic arc of making it just for the last second.

But I asked myself: if the urgency was merely function of the continuous kidney/bladder function then statistically, why would I almost always make it just by the lastest milisecond, and I would certainly lose the battle if my bathroom was 2 cm further. Clearly this is risky, esp. considering that sometimes things happen like the bathroom happens to be occupied or you can’t find your key or your zipper is stuck or something dumb, robbing you of that critical few seconds.

I’ve learned that to save myself from the unnecessary drama and rush, I can actually sort of convince myself that there is extra, say 10m between me and my bathroom. Just try to “lie” to my body a bit, about how far the right place is, or make up some vague extra steps as necessary to enable truly safe disposal. And it almost always gives me an extra few minutes.

It’s certainly one of those things when the signaling around the body is much more strategic than we would think.