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8 Ways to Turn Your Tardiness into Punctuality

I read this the other day and unfortunately, it didn’t surprise me: “Plan any event and chances are one in five of the people you invite will be late.” This comes from a recent study done at San Francisco State University that found that 20% of the U.S. population is chronically late.

All of us have encountered these 20% — the people in our personal and business lives who keep us waiting. And waiting….. However, punctuality, sadly, is something that we rarely discuss. The importance of it, that is, especially in the business arena.

When meeting for business, remember this: “If you’re not 10 minutes early, you’re 10 minutes late.” Or another favorite of mine “If you’re early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late.”

If you’re one of the 20% that is battling lateness, there are things you can do to transform yourself into Punctual Pete (or Patricia).

1. Plan ahead. Buy a coffee pot with a timer and set it up so your coffee is ready when you get up. Pick out your clothes the night before. Set your car keys in the same place every night. It’s amazing how much time is wasted running around in the morning. Planning is everything if you are hanging up your tardy hat.
2. Track your time. Knowing how to “tell time” is a good place to start revamping your lateness routine. Track how long it takes to shower in the morning. The time it takes to get to the office, etc. You will be surprised at how far you are off the mark when you see those numbers on paper!
3. Be realistic. Chronically late people are often unrealistic about how long it takes to do things—to get places. And that’s a slippery slope when you’re running from one meeting to another. If you know you’re going to have a 5-minute walk from one meeting to the next, avoid scheduling back-to-back meetings. Or, alternatively, schedule meetings for 20 minutes, instead of 30 minutes, allowing you time to juggle both.
4. Buffer, buffer, buffer. If it takes you 30 minutes to get to the office, and you have a meeting promptly at 8 a.m., leave the house at 7:15. This extra 15 minutes of buffer time will give you a buffer for unexpected delays en route. Even better, check traffic before you leave the house. Yes, there’s an app for that!
5. Test the route. Meeting a client at a restaurant across town that you’ve never been to before? Play it safe and map out the route the night before. With GPS apps nowadays, you can easily determine the fastest way to get there.
6. Bring along reading material. Being early can be a blessing. While you’re waiting for the other person to arrive, you can catch up on some reading, listen to an audio book or catch up on email. With all the technology we have today, there is no reason you can’t be productive while you wait.
7. Stay organized. There’s really no excuse to be late if you use the tools we have today to stay organized. Make sure your meeting calendar is synced to smartphone. Set a reminder for 15 or 30 minutes – giving yourself enough time to wrap up what you’re doing and move on to your meeting.
8. Get some zzz’s. If you’re sleeping through your alarm and rushing around to get to work on time, you’re probably not getting enough sleep. Get your day off to the right start by getting in 7- 8 hours of sleep.

Being on time shows others that you value their time. After all, we all know that once it’s gone, we can’t get it back!

Posted by Margaret Page in Business Etiquette and tagged business etiquette, being late.