How World of Warcraft Helped Me Escape the Mental Waiting Room

Hey friends,

Let’s talk about something I’ve only recently learned to name, even though I’ve felt it for years:

Waiting Mode.

If you're neurospicy like me, you might already know what I mean. It goes like this:

You have something scheduled—maybe a raid, a meeting, a call—and even though it's three hours away, your brain drops everything and enters what I call the mental waiting room. Productivity? Paused. Motivation? Snoozed. Time? Wasted.

Your mind goes, “We can’t possibly start anything now, we have something LATER.”
It’s like your brain pulled the parking brake and went for a snack.

🪑The Waiting Room vs. The Real World

In real life, this glitch can be frustrating as hell. I’ve lost whole afternoons to it, just… hovering in limbo. Scrolling. Wandering. Feeling bad for “wasting time” while being totally unable to redirect my focus.

But here’s the thing—World of Warcraft helped me break out of it.

🎣 The Azeroth Fix

For years, I caught myself in this exact pattern while playing WoW. I’d be waiting for a dungeon queue, a guild event, or even a specific NPC respawn. My character would literally stand in Stormwind or Orgrimmar doing nothing while I alt-tabbed and half-heartedly doomscrolled.

Then one day I asked myself:

“Would I let my character just stand around doing nothing for 40 minutes?”

And the answer was… well, I had been. But it finally clicked: there was always something I could be doing in-game.

So I started fishing.
Then herbing.
Then crafting, skinning, and clearing old transmog raids.
I realized I could use those in-between times to gather materials, level professions, or earn a little extra gold.

And wouldn't you know it? My crafting levels went up. My gold balance started climbing. And I felt way more engaged.

💡 From Gold Farming to Real-Life Focus

It took me a little longer to transfer that lesson to real life, but when I did? Game-changer.

Now, when I feel the waiting room mental fog creeping in, I ask:

• What’s the “fishing” equivalent here?
  
  

• Can I do a low-energy but useful task?
  
  

• Can I prep for the event instead of just… staring at the timer?
  
  

Sometimes it’s folding laundry or answering emails. Sometimes it’s journaling or watching a video that fills my brain with something nourishing instead of numbing.

And sometimes? Yeah—I still fish. But on purpose.

🧭 TL;DR

• Waiting Mode is real and it’s a common neurodivergent experience.
  
  

• In-game, I broke out of it by doing low-stakes but productive stuff while waiting.
  
  

• That habit spilled into real life, and now I’m wasting way less time—and feeling less stuck.
  
  

So if you ever feel like your brain has benched itself just because something is happening later… try asking, “What would I do if I were in Azeroth?”
There’s always fishing. 🎣

Thanks for hanging out in my corner of the internet. If this resonated with you, I’d love to hear about your own “waiting room” experiences—and how you’ve escaped them (or are trying to).

💛
Judy