Never Be Late Again
Never Have to Say You’re Late for a Very Important Date!
So, you know you are almost always running late and behind time. Are you tired setting your clocks ahead and trying to get up earlier – but still your days are nothing but your last minute dashes to the appointment.
At the bottom of this page, you’ll find a “Never Be Late Again” button which will almost certainly give you the tools to put an end to being late or worse a No Show Jo and letting other people down. Make sure to ready all about it in our various pages of our Notified Jo section. In the mean time, let’s see if we can help your with the immediate below suggestions.
We all know being late is a chronic condition throughout the land and the problem seems to be a very difficult problem to overcome and there are many studies and research to prove it. The problem runs deeper than just poor time management as the problem can be related to several root causes of lateness and procrastination.
It may be anxiety, time perception, and/or even adrenaline which affect your time management and reliability. And, there are a host of common mistakes which make people late or to even be the dreaded No Show Jo. So, don’t let emotional obstacles ever hold you back from making an appointment and being on time.
None of us can deny we each have our stories about being late. Perhaps you made it to a wedding, just after it was over or were late to pick up your child now in a full panic being the last one on the steps of the school. Many have dreams about their chronic late problem. Just ask a law student trying to pass the bar if they have ever awoken in a full sweat from a surreal nightmare of being late.
None of us are immune and certainly not alone with this problem. So, here below are some things to contemplate about being on time, really we should be a little early, so you’ll never have to say your late for a very important date.
Make sure to take time into account for issues like: heavy traffic times; dealing with your children and their never ending time delays; perhaps you’ll need time to find parking and let’s not forget about any distance walking from your parking to make your appointment. All of these and more issues can easily ruin your planning to be on time. So, take these and more into consideration and give them some time too, then add these times to your trip time too.
Don’t be thinking you can speed up your tasks, driving time or parking and walking times. Trying to convince yourself that you can make these things happen faster just leads to more and more failures to live up to your word and be on time. So, be honest and true to yourself first as this will help correct the problem.
Give your though process some help by thinking out those curtain times. When the show must go on, it must go on. If show time is 7 PM, then realize you should be thinking about your preparation time and add a half hour to your curtain time – think you must be there at 6:30 PM instead. So change what you think to yourself like “I need to be in the show at 6:30” or “I need to be at the appointment at 1:45 PM if the meeting begins at 2:00 PM.” And don’t forget drive time, parking time and walking time to make your appointment.”
It is always best to set a goal of being there at least 15 minutes early as this give you time for the unforeseen circumstances. When it comes down to the bottom line, “being there counts” and being punctual is really just a numbers problem.
So, don’t set your goal to be right on time as almost certainly you’ll end up late. Just give each task of making the appointment on time some number value expressed in minutes. You can do it off the top of your head, but, be sure to be fair with the numbers too. Surely you will remove a lot of stress from your life this way – and more importantly, the stress of others you are causing.
It is a great habit to form in your thinking things out in advance. Still, the hard facts are that most everyone is late precisely because we all forget to think ahead. Many times we are ready to leave for our appointment and when we finally give some thought to the address if it’s location, of course right at the last minute before we leave and then it dawns on us just how far away it is in time – almost always farther away than we thought. Even worse, of course it is prime time rush hour traffic too.
The greatest thing to do is to think ahead a day or two or at least the night before. Perhaps you can consider laying out your appointment week travel times on the first day of the week (aka Sunday) or at least give some consideration the night before for the next day. Look up the travel times in Google Maps or MapQuest in example as this really easy and doesn’t take much time and will really help. Take note of the really important appointments like events, job or other interview, maybe a wedding or your child’s next big game or performance and then just plan accordingly.
If your still having trouble, maybe your running late problem can be solved by starting with just one appointment and being on time for it. Pick one appointment and plan ahead, account for your travel and transition times, then make sure to leave early.
Why not for a change set a goal of being first one there or ready for the appointment. It will be entertaining to watch all the others arrive and note how many feel frantic from the anxiety. Then, put yourself in both their shoes and back into your own when you have been late and notice how you feel.
If you keep someone waiting, rest assured they are thinking of you negatively. And yes, calling in and letting people know you’ll be late is a good thing, but still, the negative thinking is assured to happen.
So, take a walk for a while in the other persons shoes you have an appointment with and reflect on what you’re costing them by keeping them waiting – as our guilt and shame is a powerful motivator for us to change for the better.
Besides all of the above, it is just right and professional thing to do, shows your respect for those giving you the time of day to see you, shows you in a much greater light more competent then others and best of all it shows you know “being there counts.”
So, don’t set your goal to be right on time as almost certainly you’ll end up late. Just give each task of making the appointment on time some number value expressed in minutes. You can do it off the top of your head, but, be sure to be fair with the numbers too. Surely you will remove a lot of stress from your life this way – and more importantly, the stress of others you are causing.
It is a great habit to form in your thinking things out in advance. Still, the hard facts are that most everyone is late precisely because we all forget to think ahead. Many times we are ready to leave for our appointment and when we finally give some thought to the address if it’s location, of course right at the last minute before we leave and then it dawns on us just how far away it is in time – almost always farther away than we thought. Even worse, of course it is prime time rush hour traffic too.
The greatest thing to do is to think ahead a day or two or at least the night before. Perhaps you can consider laying out your appointment week travel times on the first day of the week (aka Sunday) or at least give some consideration the night before for the next day. Look up the travel times in Google Maps or MapQuest in example as this really easy and doesn’t take much time and will really help. Take note of the really important appointments like events, job or other interview, maybe a wedding or your child’s next big game or performance and then just plan accordingly.
If your still having trouble, maybe your running late problem can be solved by starting with just one appointment and being on time for it. Pick one appointment and plan ahead, account for your travel and transition times, then make sure to leave early.
Why not for a change set a goal of being first one there or ready for the appointment. It will be entertaining to watch all the others arrive and note how many feel frantic from the anxiety. Then, put yourself in both their shoes and back into your own when you have been late and notice how you feel.
If you keep someone waiting, rest assured they are thinking of you negatively. And yes, calling in and letting people know you’ll be late is a good thing, but still, the negative thinking is assured to happen.
So, take a walk for a while in the other persons shoes you have an appointment with and reflect on what you’re costing them by keeping them waiting – as our guilt and shame is a powerful motivator for us to change for the better.
Besides all of the above, it is just right and professional thing to do, shows your respect for those giving you the time of day to see you, shows you in a much greater light more competent then others and best of all it shows you know “being there counts.”
BECOME A
NOTIFIED JOBe a Notified Jo and Show
You Know Being There Counts!