Practical Practitioner

By: Pamela Egan, FNP-C CDE

How to stop being late

You’re late, you’re late, for a very important date. In our fast-paced society, it is all too easy to feel like Alice in Wonderland’s white rabbit. But being chronically late is not only inconvenient, it can be downright destructive in both your personal and professional life.

People often believe their partners are chronically late on purpose. You may say, “My husband is always late, and he does that to tick me off”.

While this seems logical, if you make the correlation between procrastination and timeliness, there is limited support linking chronic lateness with anger or displeasure with a relationship.

As a general rule, someone who is chronically late is not necessarily chronically angry. But even if the lateness does not come from being angry at the partner, the other partner is likely to interpret or misinterpret it that way.

Disorganization, however, can be the root of belated behavior. Some people have not evolved a streamlined operation for themselves and end up costing themselves time. This is not just happenstance. They may have a mental style that is also not organized.

Aside from that, being untimely can wrongly give the impression that you feel that your time is more valuable than that of those around you. However, it is usually attributed primarily to poor planning.

Many of us fail to plan adequately for key travel time throughout our days.

If you have an appointment across town and you know it takes at least a half-hour to get there, if you don’t budget a full half-hour for travel time, you will be late.

Some strategies:

• 1.  Be realistic. Don’t try to shave off minutes. Often we think, “If I hit all the lights green and drive really fast, I can make it on time. Don’t try to fool yourself.
• 2.  Make commute time quality time. This is especially true if you drive your children to school or carpool with your spouse. If by yourself, try changing your mindset and treat commutes as a transition time for relaxation or education by listening to music or books on tape, daily driving becomes a worthwhile experience. We all see commutes as inconvenient, and we need to think of them as something valuable. If you can’t enjoy the commute – and indeed, some are more difficult than others – you are simply losing part of your life.
• 3.  Expand your next task. Mentally expanding tasks can help you to be timely while enriching your life.
  Giving yourself five extra minutes before your next meeting allows you in some ways to be genuinely present at the meeting. This process can be compared to going on vacation. Prior to leaving, people often complain that they are awake until 4 a.m. finishing work and travel preparations. At what point does the vacation start? Not at midnight, and not on the plane if they are still doing work, maybe not even in the hotel. Imagine if you could expand the vacation experience by starting it early – just include the day before your vacation and the day after as part of the vacation, so you really have time to get things done.
• 4.  Be an early bird. Because many of us fall behind schedule as the day progresses, try the following tips to bypass belated behavior as you begin the day. I recommend setting your watch at least eight minutes early.
  5.  Keep your focus. Staying focused saves precious seconds.
  6.  Set an alarm. This one may seem obvious, but you might be surprized how many procrastinators do not even use an alarm clock.

Remember, there is only so much time in a day. A little extra effort can help you – and those around you – to promptly make the most of it.