I used to be a person who perpetually ran late. It started at birth (Ask my mom, I was born way past my due date) and continued into my 30’s. I finally realized how annoying it was to everyone around me and how much stress it was causing me. In sorting out my lateness issues, I came up with a couple ways to combat the habit.
1. Stop over committing
I was very guilty of this, I waaaay over committed myself and then couldn’t possibly make it to everything in a timely manner. As a matter of fact, I just had this situation come up last week. I made lunch plans with my long time friend, because I had a meeting near her office. The day before our lunch, I had another meeting get scheduled across town, I couldn’t make it to both meetings and lunch without being late to something. I ended up having to reschedule our lunch to ensure I wouldn’t be late. The old me would have tried to make all three work and most likely ended up making my poor friend wait for me at the restaurant. Not something I want to do to her. While I definitely didn’t want to cancel on her, I thought it was more respectful to explain why and not make her wait for me at a restaurant.
2. Plan ahead
It sounds so obvious now, but planning ahead has tremendously helped me stop being late. I do as much as possible the night before to help me not be late for work in the morning. I pick out my outfit, accessories, make sure everything I’m going to need is in the car, etc. Doing this has helped so much. I am not a morning person, so not having to make decisions or remember anything is really helpful to me. Running around searching for things just starts my day off terribly.
3. Allow enough time
Another obvious one, but something I had to learn the hard way. Always plan for the worst case scenario and leave yourself enough time to arrive at your destination, be it work, the airport or dinner. There are always things out of our control that affect our ability to arrive on time, a traffic accident, getting lost, etc. The key is to build in some time into your plan. If you think it is going to be a half hour, schedule an hour. I can always find something to do if I arrive to my destination early. I do a little pinning, facebooking, return a call or text.
4. Be respectful
If you do happen to be late, be sure to call and let someone know. And be truthful with your estimated arrival time. Don’t say you will be there in five minutes when it is closer to twenty. To the late arriver, it may not seem like a big deal, but to the person waiting, it is a sign of disrespect. They may not express that to you, but they will be feeling that you don’t respect their time. It comes across as you valuing your time more than theirs. That’s not something you want to convey I am sure.
5. Avoid chaos
Lateness and chaos tend to go together. Running from one thing to another can really stress you out. I never realized how much I was causing my own stress by running late until I stopped. It’s so much more relaxing to arrive at an appointment and have a few minutes to collect yourself, instead of rushing in the door. I think part of it is how busy we all seem to be today, though most of that busyness is manufactured by ourselves. If we aren’t rushing from one thing to another, we may feel like life is passing us by. It isn’t, trust me. Life is much more enjoyable with less chaos.
It definitely takes awhile to change the running late habit. I feel it was worth the effort and has made my life much easier. Are you chronically late? What are your tips for preventing lateness? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
