In our rushed society, with appointments right after each other, no wonder we feel frantic. We have meetings at work, appointments, activities, games and practices for our young ones, and, if we’re lucky, dates for ourselves to have fun.
It is easy to get our schedules bunched up as well as our blood pressure; and very easy to be late. Habitually late
If we were meeting a potential romantic partner or employer, I would bet we would move everything out of our way to arrive on time, especially if it is the first time.
Whether it is a date or meeting, over time we get comfortable and it becomes part of our routine. We push the schedule and insert small tasks before we have to leave and they take longer than we thought. We get more done, but are habitually late.
Our blood pressure rises and we feel the stress squeezing us.
So, how can we defend ourselves? Don’t be late. How can we do that?
Make each time like the first time.
This presupposes our schedule is not like an emergency room disaster. If it is, we can do two things; try to lighten our schedule or become experts at time management or a combination of both.
We can try to say no to some meetings and events if they make our lives too stressful. We can try to limit activities with our young ones or involve other family members to help out.
But at work, we might have a boss who doesn’t understand anything except his own needs, and drives us relentlessly. We can probably discuss it with him, but he wouldn’t understand our hectic schedule. We can ask him to prioritize the meetings he wants us to attend on time and without stress. And he may be deaf to our suggestions.
In that case, a decision should be made. Do we want to die of stress on our present job, or live with another, better job?
And if we manage to lower our activity, appointment and meeting schedule, we can then work to lower our stress by allowing ourselves a pace to get there on time or, even a little early. How? Apply a little project schedule planning.
Planning
Everything we do that involves interdependent activities is a project. There are things we can control and things we cannot. The secret is to recognize the difference, and plan each leg.
First we need to do some calculations to know our personal numbers—adjust them for each particular case:
- Know how much sleep we need if we have a super-important appointment like a job interview the next day. Let’s enter 8 hours.
- We are not robots, so it takes some time to fall asleep – more if we are apprehensive or nervous about the next day’s events. Let’s enter 30 minutes.
- We are not firemen, so leaping out of bed fully dressed and ready for action will not happen. Most people need about 90 minutes to rise, shower, clear our morning fog, and dress. It wouldn’t hurt to add 30 minutes for miscellaneous items like de-icing the car in winter, walking the family pet, herding our young ones and making breakfast. Let’s enter 120 minutes to get out the door from the sound of the alarm.
- How long will it take to get to our destination? If we are driving, is there gas in the car? If we take public transportation, do we know the bus or train schedule? Would it hurt us to take an earlier bus or train in case there were delays? Do we drop our young ones off on our way?
This is a personal estimate of travel time, and keeping abreast of weather conditions and construction sites will help make the number more accurate. We all like to estimate our travel time as if it was Sunday midnight, but most commuters commute at about the same time. Vary the time with experience. Pad on some extra minutes, just in case.
Preparation
Next, prepare the night before. Put gas in the car. Organize what we will need and place it by the front door to avoid forgetting it. Lay out clothes for our young ones and ourselves. Prepare lunches and store them in the refrigerator.
Check directions to our destination if it is unfamiliar. If we are driving, it wouldn’t hurt to plan an alternate route in case of jammed traffic.
I used to take a route to work through a large metropolitan center. It was the most direct route, but every day, there were accidents and construction and my stress levels soared. Then I planned an alternate route around the metropolis. It was slightly longer, but less traveled, and the time was constant every day. I actually enjoyed the drive.
Distractions
The last thing I like to do before retiring is to check my e-mail for any change in plans. I can do it in the morning, but 5 minutes usually turns into 25 and I fall behind schedule.
This falls into the category of distractions that can put us behind schedule. Other distractions may be an unexpected phone call. Some of us cannot resist the sound of a ringing phone. This is a discipline issue. Let it go to voice mail unless it is someone with critical news. We can call them back while enroute or when we arrive early at our meeting.
Other distractions may include young ones out of sorts; they don’t like what they have to wear; they don’t like breakfast; they didn’t do their homework and a big report is due today. Sorry, I can’t help you there.
If this is a regular occurrence perhaps we need to build it into the schedule.
Scheduling
Finally, we should time ourselves to be at the right point at the right time in the schedule, so we’re ready to leave on time.
If getting up is our problem, we can set the bedside alarm ahead to compensate for hitting the snooze button too often, or we can set the alarm out of reach or out of the room to force us up to shut off the annoyance. Most cell phones have a multiple alarm capability that can be set a few minutes later than the bedside alarm with a second alarm going off when we should be leaving the house.
Practice
In truth, this approach requires discipline to keep to the schedule, but with practice it gets easier.
In a recent CareerBuilder survey, 20 percent of workers admitted to getting to work late at least once per week. 12 percent confessed to at least twice per week. Constantly arriving 15 minutes late cost our employers a week’s pay in lost productivity over the course of a year.
And this is no economy to make our employer feel we are cheating them.
Payoff
Arriving early gives us time; time to de-stress, to read an article, write a letter, make a phone call or work on something personal while waiting for the meeting or our work shift to start.
Arriving early gets noticed. Over the years of my business career, the promotions and raises always went to those who arrived early, even if they did not stay one minute past quitting time. Executives are in their jobs partially because of their timeliness, and they notice those who are like them.
And finally, routinely arriving late for our date or meetings shows everyone we have little respect for them or ourselves.
Command a vital life. Live free.
This is great content. You’ve loaded this with useful, informative content that any reader can understand. I enjoy reading articles that are so very well-written.
Passion is what’s missing in much of the online content I read these days. Your article contains the optimal combination of writing passion and well-written material and I am impressed.
Who would’ve guessed so many people would’ve responded. I suppose it signifies the level of interest. Overwhelming participation your blog has gotten is surprising.
I know there’s more to writing informational articles like this than typing some words. I get that you did a lot of work on this content. I think it’s impressive.
Quality content like this is just what I like to find and read when I am searching for online reading material. You’ve done great work.
I cringe when I think of the work you must have done putting this information together. I am glad you did it though and appreciate it. You’ve hit the mark.
This is very uniquely written information. You must think like me or I you because our like views are very close. It’s a little scary.
I read so many poorly written articles with dull content on this topic that I was pleasantly surprised by yours. It’s great to know there’s at least one writer that writes interesting and unique material.
Words cannot describe how good this article is. It is by far some of the best content on the Internet today. You are extremely talented.
Your writing style is just what I look for when I want good content. You have a great grasp of this topic and wonderful intuition.
Great article! I can’t express how much I enjoyed reading this material. I think you have hit home with this information. Thank you so much.
I’m an intermediate writer, but I am certainly not at your level. I think your content is compelling and interesting with many well made points.
I must give this content a top rating. This is well-written and beneficial content you just don’t see in often these days. Thanks for sharing.
The points you make in this content are very clear, interesting and informative. I agree with several points here. Please continue these articles as they are very engaging. Great job!
I’m not usually impressed with many writers, but I am impressed with you. Your article is full of original and intelligent content. I share a lot of your views on this subject. This is great.
This information is simply outstanding. I enjoyed your interpretation of the facts in your article. Your insight was appreciated by me and my colleagues, so we have decided to share it. This is great work.
It’s great to read content from a writer that cares about quality content. You are intelligent and well-versed on this topic. This is good writing.
You write wonderful reading material. I really like your viewpoints outlined here and I appreciate your writing skills. Thank you for sharing your unique thoughts.
I think you’ve got a lot of readers that are more than thankful to you and really pleased with the content on your blog, making me fantastically interested in what post will be next and about.
What a great article you’ve written! This is useful and well-thought out information with thought-provoking viewpoints and content. I’m impressed with how well you have presented this information in such and interesting and original way.
I can see that many other people feel the same way I do about your article. It really is very good and contains quality information.
This article is full of marvelous information. The more I read the more I wanted to read. As an informational writer myself, I know you made a great effort to research and write this article.
The comments expressed in this article are very organized and thoughtful. This is also very easy to read and understand.
Many teachers and college professors couldn’t write on this topic as well as you have. This is amazingly great work. I’ll have to share this.
The list of compliments I have for this article is way too long to be posted on here. I have much admiration for your article.
It takes a real thinker to put together such great article content such as this. I agree with many of your views here. You make many strong points on the subject. This content is awesome.
It’s become uncommon to find superior article content online anymore. I was happy to find this well-written article. There are many reasonable points made that caused me to think. I have to agree with many.
I am a fan of informative content, especially when it’s this good. Your views are interesting and I really like that. Thank you for making your article clear and easy to understand. That’s nice change.
Many people think there’s nothing to writing an article, but they are not pros. You appear to be a professional and intelligent writer as you have gathered and written valuable information in an original manner.
All writers should care about giving their readers content like this. This is intelligent, informative and original content I find accurate. I’m pretty sure there’s not another writer that can cover this topic so well.
It’s not normal for me to enjoy reading as much as I did your article. This is fascinating information and I’m in agreement with you.
Nice post, I am sure to come bach again in future …
This article is very informative material as far as I’m concerned. I haven’t had to think this much in quite a while. Thank you for boosting my slow brain cells.
I read through your article and some of your readers’ comments. I agree with a lot of your content and concur with many of these comments on how well your material is written. Thank you.
I’ve been through this site and was wondering if you are going to be writing more on this subject. I would love to see more.
I enjoy reading thought-provoking content. That’s why I enjoyed reading this article. It helps that I share many of the views of this writer. This is truly an engaging, smart and informative article. Thank you.
You must be very astute at research and writing. This shows up in your original and unique content. I agree with your primary points on this topic. This content should be seen by more readers.
I like to read an article that express interesting views. Many points the author made are unique and are things I wouldn’t have thought about.
I was reading your article and wondered if you had considered creating an ebook on this subject. Your writing would sell it fast. You have a lot of writing talent.
Not many writers impress me with their informative articles, but you have done it. This is great work and very interesting content. Thanks for posting.
I have very little patience when it comes to reading badly written content. Your article is very well-written with solid unique thoughts and great formatting.
Give yourself a pat on the back. Why? Because you have written a really interesting article and you deserve it. Your well-made points are smart and your overall content is engaging, compelling and very impressive.
I’m intrigued by all the valuable information in your article. I happened to find your article while surfing and I really like it. You have included thought-provoking, different and interesting information on this subject matter.
Your article grabbed my interest in the very first sentence and never let go. You are creative, intelligent, persuasive and knowledgeable. You’ve mastered the fine art of writing. You’ve also given your readers useful information.
I am truly astonished at the amount of effort you put into this article. The passion you show through this article is very strong and I agree with your views.
Excellent work! I really enjoyed your points of view and agree on most of them. I will come back to check for more great content.
This is a wonderfully written article. You must have done a lot of research in this area. You have made this topic easy to read, interesting and easy to understand.
I can tell you aren’t an average person by the way you write content. Your content is way too engaging and intelligent to come from an average thinker. Thank you.
The points you make in this content are very clear, interesting and informative. I agree with several points here. Please continue these articles as they are very engaging. Great job!
If I had the talent you have, I would be happy. Your article has inspired me to become a better writer. Thank you so much.