How to Be On Time Every Time

How to Be On Time Every Fourth dimension

In my concluding postal service, I talked about why being punctual matters. The short version: people who are habitually late (or are late even once, when it counts) project incompetence, self-centeredness, and even a lack of integrity.

In the comments, lapka asked if there were any tricks for people who have a hard time showing up on fourth dimension, and through a little fleck of research and a little scrap of self-examination, I think I have some answers.

First of all, though, information technology's important to run into existence on time equally part of your whole mental attitude towards time. Yous're never going to be on time, every time — whether for appointments, coming together big deadlines, or even to catch a motion-picture show — if you haven't put into practice a fix of good time management techniques.

That means, for instance, having a fundamental place where your fourth dimension commitments are recorded, whether that's an online calendar, Outlook, a smartphone, a dayplanner, or just an alphabetize bill of fare with your schedule on it.  It seems obvious that to be on time you lot accept to know where you have to be and when, simply it's a step a lot of people try to skip — they want to hold everything in their heads.

Secondly, being punctual requires a chip of an attitude adjustment. A lot of the time we let ourselves show up late because the event we're showing upwards to isn't all that important to us. Endeavour this: don't schedule events that aren't that important to you. Use that time for things that are of import to you. I know, at that place are a lot of things in your life that experience obligatory, like the weekly status report meeting at work, or dinner at your spouse'southward or partner's parents; either brand those things of import to you lot, or figure out how to cut them from your calendar.

Ok, with general principles out of the style, let'due south movement on to the tricks.

10 means to make yourself more punctual

1. Don't check your email or voicemail correct earlier you exit. That "terminal quick cheque" will almost always accept more fourth dimension than you think — which is, after all, what you lot're hoping for. If you thought there'd be nothing important in your email, you wouldn't bother checking.
2. Plan for problem. Always add 25% to your time estimate to go anywhere or do whatever job. If you lot recall it takes 30 minutes to go to piece of work, requite yourself 40 (technically, 37 one/ii, but let's not be ridiculous here!). If you need 12 working hours to stop a proposal, requite yourself fifteen. The worst thing that could happen is that you get a nice "Scotty outcome" going, where you're always ahead of schedule and anybody thinks you're a miracle worker.
3. Fix the nighttime earlier. If y'all are, like me, someone who has a hard fourth dimension getting going in the morn, brand certain y'all set up the dark before. Lay out your clothes, put your keys, wallet, etc. in tomorrow's pants pockets or your purse, load upwardly your bag with whatsoever material you'll need  in the morning, put your luncheon together, and so on. In the morning, wake upwardly, go dressed, grab your stuff, and become.
4. Set your clocks alee a few minutes each — by unlike amounts. My alarm clock is 5 minutes fast, my watch but 1, my car clock 3. I think. Since I can't be certain, I have to take each clock at face value. You might have a look at the Procrastinator'southward Clock which is some random amount of time ahead, upward to 15 minutes. It'southward bachelor for Mac and PC — I wonder if in that location's a bedside version?
5. Larn to ameliorate approximate how much time things accept. Employ a time tracker app like RescueTime to learn how long typical tasks take you to complete. Tape these times, and refer to your record when estimating the time needed for similar tasks.
6. Schedule events 10 minutes early. Put your 1:00 appointment into your schedule at 12:50, for example. Simply always accept x minutes of work with you to fill the slack time, in instance you surprise yourself by showing up "on fourth dimension" 10 minutes early on!
7. Set up reminders. Utilize your agenda program's congenital-in reminder function, or use a service similar Sandy to ship you lot text reminders at set intervals before each engagement. I similar a reminder at least an hour beforehand, then I can plan, and another 15 minutes prior so I know where I stand.
8. Schedule events for "off-height" times. Last year, I had a weekly meeting at eight am. A trip that takes me 30 minutes whatsoever time after nine:00 am took me 1 1/ii hours due to blitz 60 minutes traffic. Guess how many times I was late? Acquire the times that traffic or other factors might make you late, and avoid scheduling during those times. For instance, give yourself at least an hr to get settled in every morn before your start coming together (so if you're tardily to piece of work, you won't also be late for a meeting), don't schedule meetings immediately later on lunch (in case yous become held up), avoid before-working-hours events (due to rush hour traffic), etc.
9. Fill your gas tank when it reaches 1/iv tank. Don't permit an empty gas tank make you late for anything. Fill upwardly whenever you reach 1/iv and you'll never have to brand an emergency stop at a gas station during your commute. (Plus, I'm told it'due south better for your engine — whether that'due south true or non, I don't know.)
10. Use a countdown timer. Grab a cheap digital timer, and use it to create a sense of urgency, and to help you proceed on runway at each step you lot demand to complete to make it wherever yous're supposed to exist on time. Break your preparation downwardly into 10 minutes parts, gear up the timer, and Get!

What other advice exercise our readers have for people who just can't effigy out how to be more punctual? Let usa know your tips and tricks in the comments.

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Source: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/how-to-be-on-time-every-time.html

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