Always showing up late to any meeting or event can cause you stress and anxiety, and other people may question your trustworthiness. You probably want to be on time for meetings or anywhere else you need to go, but punctuality isn't a natural instinct for everyone. The good news is that you can practice becoming punctual every time by changing your habits and your concept of punctuality itself. Read on to learn some quick long-term tricks and strategies.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Using Tricks to Get Out of the House Quickly
Step 1. Make sure you have everything ready the night before
If you still haven't figured out why you feel like you're chronically late, try checking what you do before you leave the house. You may feel like you are ready to go out well in advance, but then you end up reviewing and going over all the things you need to do to prepare yourself, consequently being late. If you organize everything to be ready well in advance, however, you will not find yourself among a thousand obstacles that can prevent you from going out on time. Make sure you stick to the following steps every night so that you have far fewer chores in the morning:
- Prepare the clothes you will want to wear.
- Complete any tasks you usually postpone in the morning, such as writing emails or printing documents.
- Pack your bag or briefcase with everything you need for the next day.
- Try to have everything ready so you can have a quick breakfast, or give up completely on eating foods that need to be cooked, preferring perhaps the oats you prepare the night before.
Step 2. Keep the things you need to take with you near the door
Many people are often late because they spend too much time looking for their keys, cell phone, charger or wallet. If you keep all your essentials in the same drawer or tray by the door, you'll find them quickly and easily when it's time to go out.
- If you used to walk to the door and leave your keys on the kitchen counter, your wallet in the bedroom, and your phone on the kitchen table, you will waste a lot of time looking for all the things when you could easily solve the problem. Once in a while it may happen that you forget an important object and you will have to return to retrieve it, doing it even later.
- To overcome this inconvenience, every time you enter the house, empty your pockets of all essential items and always put them in the same place. If, on the other hand, you keep everything in your bag, always put that in the same place.
Step 3. Create a "get ready to go" zone near the door
When you do your chores around the house and think about the things you will need for the next time you go out, take some time to put them in this area. If you get into the habit of doing this on time, you will find everything ready and you won't have to do a mental inventory every time you are about to go out.
You can also do better and put items in the car when they come to your mind
Step 4. Anticipate the delay before it occurs
Do you have any excuses that seem plausible? The traffic was terrible. Or: The train has been canceled. Or worse still: I had to stop for gas. If you've used these excuses before, you won't be able to use them all the time.
- Let us know in advance that these problems happen quite often. Being on a delayed or stuck subway car doesn't happen once in a lifetime. Leave home early to have enough leeway to overcome these unexpected events and therefore still be punctual.
- Avoid the completely unnecessary risk of being late because you run out of fuel. You can get around by getting gas the night before. Make sure you have your metro ticket and have breakfast at home instead of stopping at the bar and waiting in line.
- Check the traffic conditions and the weather to see if they could delay you, and try to leave rather early to compensate for the longer journey. Also remember that the possibility of delays due to bad weather is high. Make sure you leave enough time to absorb the worst typical delay.
- In case of frost, you need to take at least 5-10 minutes more to free the car from ice or snow.
- If you use the bus, make sure you know the route and the fare and keep the money for the taxi on hand in case of emergency.
- If you depend on another person to drive, make sure you have a plan B!
Step 5. Make a commitment to be 15 minutes early for everything
If you have to be at work at 8, you don't have to think that you just need to walk through the door at exactly that time. Instead, try saying to yourself, "I have to be at work at 7:45 am." If you can keep this commitment, you will be on time even if there are minor setbacks, such as a traffic jam on the road. And those rare times that you can actually be 15 minutes early, you will get compliments for being a willing employee.
If you can't wait, bring something to read in those short breaks, wherever you go. This makes it easy to be on time, since in the 10-15 minutes you have before an appointment or event, you can read a couple of pages. You will have the feeling that you have done something constructive while you are waiting (and indeed it is)
Step 6. Overestimate the time needed to reach the place of the appointment / commitment
If you have learned to have everything ready to go out in the morning, but manage to arrive late even when there are no impediments, the cause could be an underestimation of the time it takes to get to the place you need to go. Optimistic people tend to underestimate a few minutes in the hope of being able to get there faster than is actually possible. Unfortunately, this means even more delay! Be realistic when planning your trips and you will see that you will be able to be on time.
- Sometimes, it is difficult to know exactly how long it will take to get to a certain place. If you are preparing for an important meeting, such as a job interview, you can consider making the route by car or public transport the previous day. Calculate the duration of the trip so you know what time you need to leave home.
- Don't forget to add 15 minutes to your overall time to take into account any obstacles that could be delaying you. If, for example, you think it takes 40 minutes to get to the meeting place, leave the house 55 minutes earlier, in case problems might arise.
Method 2 of 3: Adopt Better Habits
Step 1. Get up immediately as soon as you turn off the alarm
Don't press the snooze button, don't linger in bed, and don't watch TV early in the day. When you have set your alarm time to be on time, you probably have not taken these extra 10-15 minutes into account. If you get up after the set time, you will carry this delay for the rest of the day. These extra minutes spent in bed will move your entire schedule forward, so get up as fast as you can.
- To quickly wake your body up, try stretching, washing your face with cold water and brushing your teeth as soon as you get up.
- If you can't get out of bed on time, then the reason is that you go to sleep too late. Try to go to bed earlier to see if it works. This will make your life easier when you wake up and help you stay on time throughout the day. Unless you have different and verified needs, consider that you need to sleep 8 hours every night.
Step 2. Double-check the time it takes for each of your daily tasks to really take
For example, you may have the impression that the shower takes up 15 minutes of your day. If you start at 6:30 you should finish it at 6:45. But how much time do you waste before and after the shower? Maybe you stay in the bathroom for 20-30 minutes, which is why you never get out at 6:45 am. So think back to the things you do every day and try to estimate the timing precisely.
Take the time for a few consecutive days to figure out exactly how many minutes it takes for the various operations. Use a stopwatch and record the times for a week and then calculate the average values, so you will have a precise indication to organize each activity
Step 3. Check which are the moments in which you lose the most amount of time
What blocks you and prevents you from leaving the house on time? "The black holes of time", like getting distracted by checking emails, spending too much time curling your hair or stopping at the bar on the way to the office, go unnoticed in our daily lives, but they deviate us from the daily schedule.
When you discover one of these activities that "eat up your time", try to change your habits about it to make them faster. For example, standing while checking your email makes it more remote from being able to randomly start browsing the web
Step 4. Change the time on your watch
Set it five minutes ahead of the real thing, so you'll always be at least five minutes early for appointments or events.
Step 5. Make a mental note of where you should be at all times
For example, if you know you have to leave the house at 8 to go to work, say to yourself, "It's 7:20, I should be in the shower." "It's 7:35 am, I should brush my teeth." This way you keep the timing. Thinking about a morning schedule and sticking to it can be helpful.
Consider printing the schedule and following it in the morning. Stick it in the bedroom, office, kitchen, or other place where you're sure to see it
Step 6. Don't overdo the commitments
Maybe you are always late because you schedule appointments too tightly and you don't have enough time to travel from one place to another. Check your agenda and make sure that each activity has a margin of several minutes before and after the established time. This way you have time to move, rest, eat and do whatever you need to do between one appointment and the next.
Step 7. Surround yourself with watches
If you have a tendency to miss deadlines and forget what time it is, you probably need more watches. If you don't like wearing one on your wrist, keep your cell phone handy. Wall clocks attract attention and help people meet their commitments. Check that they are all set to the same time so you don't get confused.
- Throughout the day use timers, alarms, reminders. For example, you could set your cell phone to vibrate or ring when there is 10 minutes left for the next lesson or meeting.
- Some people intentionally set their watches several minutes forward to "fool themselves" and be at the meeting place early. Give it a try to evaluate if it is a suitable solution for you, there are those who claim that this trick does not work, because the mind adapts to the concept of having a few more minutes available and the result is chronic delay. Knowing the exact time helps you to be punctual and aware.
Method 3 of 3: Change Attitude to Punctuality
Step 1. Recognize that you are having trouble with punctuality
If you are chronically late, you may be inclined to find lots of excuses. Some may also be valid, for example if you communicate that you are late for an appointment due to a flat tire or a violent storm that slowed traffic for an hour. But if the impression is that you are constantly looking for a reason for your delay, then the time has come to tackle the problem. Like all problems, you can't fix it if you deny that you have it.
- If you are unsure whether yours is a chronic disorder, ask friends and family to honestly tell you if they consider you a punctual person. If punctuality is your problem, you won't be able to hide it from them.
- However, don't be too hard on yourself if you're having trouble being on time. According to a study conducted in the city of San Francisco, 20% of the US population has the same difficulty.
Step 2. Consider how being late affects others as well
Maybe you really want to be punctual, and when you aren't, your sorrow is sincere for causing inconvenience to other people. But if yours is constant behavior, people will begin to view it as disrespectful. Being late forces the other to wait for you. This leads you to think that you are convinced that your time is more valuable than his, even if it is absolutely not the case.
- Think about how you feel when someone else is late for an appointment. Do you appreciate having to sit alone in a restaurant, waiting for your friend to show up half an hour later?
- Eventually, your chronic lag will destroy others' trust in your trustworthiness and leave a bad impression on other characteristics of yourself as well.
Step 3. Make the adrenaline stimulate you in other ways
Do you feel a little excited when you try to strike the clock? It's just like a race, if you can get to your date before time runs out, then you've won. However, this funny habit has bad consequences if you lose too often. If you love the adrenaline rush you feel when you are on the wire, then stop playing with your dating and find another way to experience these emotions. For example, play some timed video games, do track and field or, if you really love the rush of energy, go skydiving.
Step 4. Make punctuality one of your absolute values
It may seem less important than honesty or integrity, but this characteristic is intimately related to them. When you say that you will be in a certain place at a certain time, and you don't show up, what would people think of you? If this always happens, then the impression that others have of your integrity is affected; they will think that you are not honest and that you do not keep your word. Try to take punctuality seriously, just like any other values you strive to uphold. If you take care of this with more effort, then you will be more and more on time.
- Examine those areas where you tend to overlook punctuality. If there are people you don't care to meet in due course, or classes that you always show up to 15 minutes late, it probably means they're not that important to you.
- Try to spend time on activities you enjoy and do them with awareness. Show up on time and get involved. When you care about what you do and live with integrity, you will understand that it is right to be on time.
Step 5. Enjoy the advantage of being a punctual individual
A few weeks after changing your habits and mindset in order to be more punctual, it will no longer seem so tiring and you will begin to enjoy the benefits of never being late. Here are some examples:
- You will experience less daily stress and you will not have to come up with reasons and constantly apologize.
- Your career will improve as you will no longer be late for work.
- Your personal sphere will benefit as people will begin to see you as more trustworthy and trustworthy.
- Being consistently on time actually allows you to be late sometimes because people will give you the benefit of the doubt.
Advice
- Remember the old military proverb: "If you are not 5 minutes early, you are 10 minutes late!"
- Children are particularly adept at making parents delay. Follow the advice outlined in this article, not only for you, but for your children as well. Prepare their clothes in advance (including coats and gloves), bathe them the night before, and so on. Take a few minutes in the evening to check that the notebooks are in your backpack and that your homework has been done, and at the end put everything near the entrance. Check for notes and votes that need to be signed. If your child is very young, check that the diaper bag is always full. If he is already 12 and organized, he can also help you!
- Here is a simple sentence to remember: "If you are 5 minutes early, you are on time. If you are on time, you are late. If you are late, you will have a lot of explanations to give."
- If you bring your lunch to work, make it the night before.
Warnings
- Delay can also erode good relationships with friends and co-workers and your professional status. A strong personality can help you smooth out the individual complaints of those waiting for you, but still leave a feeling of resentment building up. Holding on to people who have planned and prepared work, travel, meals and entertainment generates increasing irritation and devalues your personality.
- Don't lie to yourself that no one notices you're late. If you feel like you're late for school, work, church, or appointments on more than one occasion, don't think other people don't notice.
- Remember that you are playing your reputation. The power of a good first impression is limitless.
