The Open Circle

Unless the person behind you is carrying cargo and can’t open the door themselves, holding doors open for people is highly inefficient, and wastes time.

Consider yourself taking your time walking to a door 10 metres away from you, and the person who is there now, decides to hold it open for you. Now you have to hurry up and get to the door and say “thank you”, as opposed to your original plan of taking your time and getting to the door to open it yourself. The door holder has also wasted time and energy holding it open for you. If the door holder had just opened the door and walked through, and you approach moments later to also open it yourself and walk through, the total energy used for door opening by both persons is far less than the total energy by both persons in the door-holding scenario.