Maybe because we’ve been living in isolation, maybe because it’s human nature, maybe because our nerves are frayed by watching news shows that offer so much uncertainty, maybe all of it together raises our intolerance so more and more things become annoyances. Annoying things grab our unwilling attention and that may be the reason annoyances are so... well... annoying.

Annoyance refers to whatever bugs us (the stimulus) and also to the emotional state we experience when being bugged (our response). The feeling of being annoyed is akin to the emotional states of anger, frustration, and disgust – but not really. It seems to be its very own state of being. We may not be able to define it, but we sure know when it arises. I began to think of what annoys me most. Here are my top 20 annoyances:

1. Slow Internet connections
2. Stepping in dog poo
3. Poor customer service
4. Stubbing my toe
5. My computer crashing
6. Airplane delays
7. Paper cuts
8. Junk mail
9. Stepping in chewing gum
10. Spam
11. Unsafe drivers
12. Running out of toilet paper
13. Flat tire
14. People sneezing on me
15. Bossy people
16. Bad odors
17. Waiting on “hold”
18. Cashiers giving me change on top of a receipt
19. Finding the end of tape rolls
20. Long lists like this one.

Do the same things annoy everyone or are they specific to each of us? Are some people annoyed by lots of things and others annoyed by very few? It’s hard to imagine that the Dalai Lama gets annoyed often. What about you? What tops your list?