Early morning flights are a stress-filled mix of mad dashes from point A to point B, with long stretches of waiting. I have experienced 100's of such early morning flights. I usually am surprised to find myself actually on the plane at last!
I think that most of life works in a very similar manner. For instance, there are often 20-30 hours of waiting (and studying, and researching and thinking) for God to speak in sermon prep. Then the mad dash of 25 minutes to gush it all out.
There are many such key moments of activity in life, that pivot on the quality and character of the time spent waiting. The waiting is the shaping, forming, development time for the mad dash of action, doing, accomplishing.
