On Time is the New Late

ON TIME IS THE NEW LATE

I Hate late…..  If you aren’t arriving 15 minutes early you are late.

Are you one of those chronically late people? Are you always 10-15-20-30 minutes late everywhere you go?   Are you one of those people that everyone tells you the time and it’s 30 minutes to an hour earlier than everyone else they invite? Some people are always late. You probably know someone who never shows up when you want them to. They always have an excuse when they finally appear. Productive people are on time. Busy people are over committed, over booked, overwhelmed and chronically late.

Consider this, when you are late, you inconvenience everyone who is waiting for you. Are you really that important and special that everyone should wait for you? If you are chronically late you are being inconsiderate of others time and value. What you are essentially saying to them is “my time is more valuable than yours” Is that true are you more important than everyone else?

I had a friend who showed up 15 minutes late to an appointment with a prospective client. She sat down apologized for being late and handed them her proposal. The client promptly handed it back and said, if this is how you conduct your business before you have my business, I don’t want to do business with you and she lost the sale.  Hard lesson to learn.

It’s time to re-assess and re-evaluate your life, and priorities.  Each night make a list of all you need to accomplish the next day. Determine the priorities. The most pressing task. The must do’s. Create a second list of the “it would be nice to get done items”. Finally, make a list of the I can do these later items.  Schedule your time accordingly and stick to the schedule. If something is taking you longer than expected, simply move on to the next priority and schedule time to come back to the open task.  Don’t over commit and over book yourself. Having too much to do in too little time creates stress and tension. You end up feeling like you didn’t get anything accomplished, because you probably didn’t.  Completing a task and crossing it off the list gives you great satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.

If you find you are chronically late, I suggest you make a concerted effort to rearrange your schedule. Calculate how much time it will take you to arrive at your destination and leave 15-20 minutes early to account for traffic.   When you schedule events or appointments, plan for travel time and include time for the unexpected. 

Don’t make that extra phone call or do that extra errand or extra chore around the house. Get out of the habit of thinking “oh I have time to fit one more thing in”.  When you are invited to an event, be considerate of the hostess and the time it took them to prepare for the event. Is the food going to get cold while they are waiting for you?   Being late is rude and inconsiderate.   Whether it’s a business meeting, a family event, meeting with friends, an appointment or other, on time is the new late.  Plan to arrive at least 10-15 minutes early.

I had a friend who was chronically late by 30-60 minutes.  Even if we told her an earlier time to arrive, she was still late.  She always came rushing in with some sort of an excuse, meanwhile everyone had been inconvenienced waiting for her and we often arrived late for the event we were attending.  We started telling her to meet us there and she was still late. Eventually, we stopped inviting her altogether.

If the unforeseen happens which is occasionally does.

If you know you are going to be late, always call and let the other party know you are on your way and how far you are running behind so they can decide to get started without you.

Tips to Cure Chronic Tardiness

• Reevaluate How Long Your Routines Really Take. Late people tend to remember the one time they got ready in 20 minutes or the one time they got to work in seven. Start keeping track of and writing down your daily habits. Then estimating how long you think it takes you to do each one. Next spend a week or so writing down how long each activity or task actually takes.

• Change Your Thoughts, Patterns and Behavior.  Reframing the way, you think about time, activity, and punctuality can be effective. Instead of stressing about it, sit down with a pen and paper and jot down all the positives that come with being on time. Think about the things that are going to motivate you to be on time and remember them the next time you’re trying to cram in too much before a deadline.
• Get down with Downtime. Eternally tardy people often like to pack in as many activities as possible to maximize productivity. This can make any extra waiting time uncomfortable. Start by reframing downtime as something to enjoy between all the rushing. A luxury time instead of wasted time. Always have a book with you so if you find yourself with a few spare minutes you are doing something productive.

• Budget Your Time Differently. Timely, productive people give themselves round numbers to get somewhere.  30 minutes, for instance. The chronically late, on the other hand, often budget exact times, like 23 minutes, to get somewhere. This often doesn’t account for the inevitable delay factors that pop up. If you’re exactly on time, that means you engage in split-second timing. You’re not on time unless you’re 15 minutes early.

• Reschedule Your Day. Habits tend to be reflexive patternsof behavior. To change that pattern, begin by writing appointments down on your calendar 30 minutes before they actually happen. This new habit will help you start planning before the last second. Reevaluate your to-do list. Chances are, you’re simply not going to get everything done. Finally, be sure to schedule downtime every day so you know when it’s time to relax, and when it’s time to get moving.

Set realistic, achievable, measurable goals and allot realistic time for completion. Factor in downtime and celebrate your successes.