Just Sit Back and Relax!

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We are particularly adept at stealing time between events, such as on the way to work or the way home from school. We stretch our pit stops into rest stops. We grab 20 min. of tranquillity at Starbucks. Stuck in traffic, we call an old college friend and chitchat.

The faster we rush, the more time is left afterward to steal. To satisfy this desire, McDonald's has announced a major redesign of its restaurants, swapping out the polymer chairs and melamine tables for cushioned fabrics, stainless-steel tables and plasma-screen televisions. By mimicking the look and feel of our own living rooms, McDonald's will now encourage lingering. (The line between lingering and loitering has not yet been determined.)

As crazy as it seems, we like to relax at places that serve jolting caffeine and superfast food.

According to travel agents, the growth trend in travel is the half-week sneak-away built around a weekend. Families still hit Disneyland and Paris, but we cram the experience into three or four days. We don't get to relax, but we come away feeling as if we got a bargain for our precious time. Fewer workdays off means less catching up.

Back at our desks come Tuesday, sunburned and a bit disoriented, we flash a cunning grin when a co-worker asks, "How was your weekend?" We feel as if we've beaten the system. Isn't that what we're really after? > Watch for Po Bronson's frequent columns on time.com