If you are always late and this is starting to be a hallmark of your personality, the chances are that you are missing out on a lot of opportunities such as job offers, fun activities, friendships and more. If arriving late is a way of life for you, learn to organize yourself, prioritize punctuality, and solve the problems underlying your flaw.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Organizing Your Life
Step 1. Always plan to arrive early
When you need to go somewhere, try to arrive 15-30 minutes earlier than necessary. If you're always late, you probably can't quantify the time it takes to get ready. Avoid the problem by giving yourself more room to maneuver.
See if you arrive really early. You may find that by leaving "early", you are always on time
Step 2. Set two alarms
Put one to remind you that it's time to get ready and the other for when you need to leave the house. Obey the alarm clocks!
- As soon as the first alarm goes off, stop what you are doing. If it's an activity you need to pick up, like a work project, make a mental note of where you stayed.
- Don't forget to take everything you need and make sure you know how to get to where you need to go.
- Try to get out of the house before the second alarm goes off.
- This method only works if you respect the alarms and react as soon as you hear them go off.
Step 3. Prepare for the day
Organize all your notes and materials well in advance for each event, so that you only need to take what you need before you leave. If you feel tired in the morning, do everything you can in the evening before going to sleep.
- Before going to bed, prepare your clothes and bag for the next day.
- Plan your meals so you don't have to look for milk for cereal at the crack of dawn.
Step 4. Learn to give yourself some time between meetings and assignments
If you are forced to go from one meeting to the next without a break, your pace will quickly become unbearable. If you have too many commitments, you will still be late at the first unexpected event.
- In addition to leaving you room to breathe, you can take advantage of your holes in the agenda even if one of your commitments should be prolonged, having the possibility of being punctual for the next one.
- Calculate the time needed to move from one activity to another and add 10-30 minutes for unexpected delays.
- If you make too many commitments because you hate having nothing to do, find something pleasant or productive to fill the wait. You can take one of your favorite novels with you, or use your free time to check your email.
Step 5. Lighten your calendar
Is your agenda full of commitments that force you to run? Think about how you might rearrange your appointments and try to accept fewer in the future.
- Delegate some of your commitments. There are probably other people in your life who are perfectly capable of taking responsibility for your duties, from relatives to your staff.
- Consider each item on your calendar and ask yourself if they really matter.
- If you have multiple commitments in the same area, drop some.
- Only take care of the activities that don't force you to change your plans too much and that you have the opportunity to complete in a short time. Having too many commitments is bad for your health and social life.
Step 6. Beware of activities that take too much time
Avoid going online, playing video games, watching TV shows, cleaning the house, or worrying a lot. Helping others can also be a waste of time. If some activities cause you to lose track of time, do them when you are not afraid of being late.
- Staying connected to the internet may seem like an efficient strategy to keep up with the latest news, but it can also lead you to not notice the time passing.
- If you're late for meetings or appointments by checking emails or playing games, or fail to meet deadlines and end up ignoring other commitments in your life, it's time to reconsider your priorities.
Part 2 of 3: Prioritize Punctuality
Step 1. Remind yourself that being punctual means respecting good manners
Being late is rude, while being on time is a way to show respect for other people. You do not have the power to give back lost time to someone who waited for you, so it is not respectful to assume that you have the right to make someone wait for no good reason. Even if the label imposes different punctuality requirements depending on the occasion, punctuality is always a sign of respect. All of the following situations require punctuality:
- Lunches or dinners: always arrive on time with meals. The cook deserves respect and the food gets cold because of the wait.
- If you have a restaurant appointment, try to be on time; it is unacceptable to arrive more than five minutes late.
- When you are invited to dinner, try not to arrive early (the host has to finish the preparations) and not to arrive more than 10-15 minutes late.
- If you find that you are unable to arrive on time for dinner at a friend's house, call the host and let them know that they are late so they can serve the dishes without waiting for you.
Step 2. Remember that being on time means being practical
In many situations, arriving late will not allow you to do what you planned.
- Always arrive early to the cinema or theater with friends or other people. If you need to buy tickets, show up well in advance, as the queues at the box office can be very long. If you've already bought them, arrive about 10 minutes before the show starts.
- Arrive a few minutes in advance for appointments with doctors, lawyers, hairdressers and other professionals. Do not be late; their time is money, and if you're not on time, you'll have a negative impact on their earnings and subsequent customers. If you find that you can't arrive on time, call and let us know.
- Being thirty seconds late at a job interview is already too much. If you want to get a job, always show up on time.
- At a business meeting, try to arrive on time or early to make preparations for introductions.
Step 3. Be on time for love
See punctuality as an expression of love. Coordinating your schedule with someone allows you to feel part of a team. Think how important it is for your partner, friends, relatives, and even colleagues to respect their time and appreciate their punctuality.
Step 4. Consider the consequences of your delays
If you are an optimistic person or if you have ADHD (attention deficit disorder) or ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), you may underestimate the negative consequences of your delay.
- Think for a moment about the possible repercussions of not attending an upcoming event.
- Promise yourself that you will avoid the unpleasant consequences by arriving on time.
Step 5. Learn to give due importance to time
To do this, you will have to focus directly on the passing of the minutes. Those who always arrive late often do not consider time as a precious resource that must be exploited to get the most out of their life.
- Meditation can give you a chance to better understand the importance of time.
- You can also try keeping an agenda with your appointments, writing your schedule for the day every morning, estimating how long you will need for each activity, and checking how long it actually took you.
Part 3 of 3: Evaluate the Causes
Step 1. Identify the reasons why you are always late
If you are a chronic latecomer, it may be helpful to monitor the causes. Find out if your bad habit is due to psychological causes or management errors.
- Ask yourself if you are always late by the same amount of time. In that case, your problem is probably psychological. If the delays are random, you may need to learn to organize yourself better.
- Take a minute at the end of each day to take notes on your delays. What engagement did you arrive late for? What have you been holding back from? What feelings did you have?
- Take note of all the worries you have had and the times when you have felt stuck.
- Consider all errors in judgment.
- After a week or two of notes, reread them. Do you notice any repeating patterns?
Step 2. Consider your anxiety
Do you feel intense stress about things you think you can't do, don't want to do, or can't find the resources to do? Did this force you to cancel commitments or arrive late enough to lose them anyway?
If you suspect this is your problem, talk to a psychologist about your anxiety. Therapy and medications can help you
Step 3. Ask yourself if you are late to test other people
If you are unsure of how important you are to someone, you may be late to prove that you are needed. Ask yourself if not being on time makes you feel indispensable. Do you feel superior to others when they have to wait for you?
- Does being late help you feel loved by someone? Do you need others to wait to confirm that they are willing to sacrifice their time for you?
- In this case, you should speak to a psychologist to improve your self-esteem.
Step 4. Identify management errors
You may be late because you have trouble calculating time and space. You may have difficulty processing information, or have an attention disorder, such as ADD or ADD.
- If that's your problem, you may be underestimating the time it takes. Try timing your movements, so that you have a more realistic analysis of your situation.
- If you need to reach a place you've never been, look for it on an application like Google Maps, so you can get an idea of the distance to go.
- Give yourself more time. Even if you know the distance to travel to get to a place, you may need more time, especially if you get lost.
Advice
- Set alarms on your phone as a reminder of your schedule. Change their sound if you start ignoring them.
- Timely relatives or friends can help by letting you know when you run the risk of being late and inviting you to speed up the preparations. Ask them to leave you behind if you are too late and if you ask that they wait for you. That way they won't feel guilty and will force you to hurry.
- Go to bed earlier so you can wake up early.
- Do you wear a watch or can you read the time on your mobile? Not knowing the time could be one of the reasons you are late. Get your sense of time by checking the time often.
Warnings
- If you've received a warning at work for your delays, take that action seriously. Your punctuality will likely be closely scrutinized and you won't be able to make many delays yet.
- When you are late for a valid reason, let the people involved know what happened. This way your rude gesture will be considered less disrespectful.
