I Hate Being Late. Here’s How I Avoid It.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Hey there, hero!

There’s very few things in life that bother me more than being late for something.

It rarely happens, but when it does, I feel a tremendous responsibility to respect the schedule of the person I’m meeting with.

We all know people who are chronically late. Some just brush it off as no big deal, and some feel as I do.

However you feel about it, here’s the two-step plan for how to avoid it.

Hope this helps!

David

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  1. Thank you for this! Guilty! I struggle with this and now know exactly why I am doing it. It drives me crazy and I am embarrassed every time I am late. You said exactly what I needed to hear and I now know how to take action to begin improving on this. Thank you for putting into words what I could not.

  2. I love this video. I am like you David, rarely late. I have a huge respect for people’s time, and honoring my word when I say I will be somewhere. I strive for my yes to mean yes, and my no to mean no. I want clients, friends, family to know and trust m when I say I will do something. So I defiantly pad my time, plan ahead, and so forth. Last week I had two days of filming on location that was not close to home and traffic heavy. I saw my job not only to be on time, but to arrive on set calm, put together, and ready for the director. So I planned ahead and got past traffic and any possible obstacle. I arrived 45 minutes ahead and had time for coffee, review my lines, and so on. To show up late, or disheveled can and will give a negative impression to the people who cast me. I never want that to be me. And if I am ever late, I strive to be able to say that it was beyond my control, not because I failed to plan. Last thing I will say I appreciate about this video, is that I need to be careful about how I treat myself when I fail this standard. Just like you mentioned David. Thanks for this!

  3. Being early is a win-win-win-save. First it shows whomever you are to meet they they are important enough for you to take extra time. Second it gives you time to settle and find your center and attack the on your center and on your terms. Third, if someone before you has flaked and didn’t show (or is late like you used to be) that gives you a chance to save the day and the time of whomever you are meeting. And finally, if there are unforeseen delays, you have a better chance of being on time.

    1. Oops! It appears it’s not a good idea to use html markers in a reply. The sentence should be: “Second it gives you time to settle and find your center and attack the (insert whatever here) on your center and on your terms.

  4. i used to play junior tennis here in southern california and tournaments were strewn all over the southland

    there is a rule that if a player is late to scheduled match time there are penalties assessed to the score up to and including being defaulted

    i developed the technique of “working backwards”- from the time of the scheduled match and accounting for all the details leading up to the match; this would include travel time (and always allowing for sufficient “padding”), going to bathroom before travel, eating before travel, having equipment ready the night before, perusing the thomas guide if i was unfamiliar with location and getting a good lay of the land, etc.

    being late drives me nuts and i find that any kinds of “road rage” or other stressors “en route” stem from neglecting my “padded timeline”

    if i can keep things together i usually arrive 45min-1hr early and can easily get into the right frame of mind for whatever it is i need to do

    i found this page as a result of being late for my daughter’s math tutor appointment and that i need to start “training” her (my wife might be a lost cause) to work backwards as well

    thanks for the effort of making the video