Time Management - Are You Always Late?

Are You Always Late?

"Fashionably late" is no longer in fashion. In today's heavily scheduled world, it is the punctual who are respected and admired. Even though most of us know this, some people are always late, no matter how much time they have to get ready. You may be one of them. Do any of the following sound familiar?

** You're always rushing at the last minute, even though you've promised yourself countless times that you wouldn't let this happen again.

** You've tried setting your watch several minutes ahead, but you're still late.

** You may be punctual for work (barely) but you're usually at least 20 minutes late for meetings, appointments, class, church, theater or other non-work situations.

** You make excuses, such as: "There was traffic," or "Something came up," or "I was going to call you but I didn't want to be even more late."

** People become impatient or angry at your tardiness.

** You believe that you are more motivated when in a time crunch, or that you move faster under pressure.

If you can identify with 2 or more of the above, you have a problem with punctuality. Chronic lateness is not a psychiatric diagnosis. Nor is it a genetic condition, even though some people treat it as such. They say things like:

"That's just the way I am. I don't like it, but it seems that I am incapable of being on time."

"My mother was always late; I'm always late, and so are my kids."

"I don't mean to be late. It just turns out that way."

Chronic lateness is related to procrastination. Latecomers and procrastinators have trouble NOT with time, but with self-discipline. They may also have underlying anxiety about the task they're faced with.

If you have problems with being punctual, especially for things that are a bit threatening, such as doctor's appointments, new social situations, or meeting with people you don't like, then your lateness is anxiety-based. Putting off the inevitable is how your mind tries to cope with anxiety.

But if you are habitually late for routine business and for events that don't cause you much discomfort, then the problem is mainly with self-discipline and your "inner brat," the part of you that balks at exerting itself, and at being told what to do.

Here's an example of how your inner brat sabotages your efforts. Suppose that, in order to be at work by 8:00 a.m., you must leave home by 7:30. So you set the alarm for 6:30 -- no, let's make it 6:15 just to be safe.

The next morning when the alarm rings at 6:15, your inner brat says to you, "Just press the snooze button. You didn't really intend to get up till 6:30 anyway." And 9 minutes later when the alarm rings again, your inner brat says, "Just one more time. It's not 6:30 yet."

You might press the snooze button 2 or 3 more times. By the time you do roll out of bed you feel a little rushed, but you convince yourself that you can still make it out the door by 7:30 . . . 7:40 at the latest.

Oops -- what have you just done? You have inadvertently allowed your inner brat to negotiate. The 7:30 departure time is no longer firm. Now it's moved to 7:40. Plus, you have opened the door to further delay as you get closer to 7:40.

As your morning routine progresses, you find several little things that didn't seem urgent last night or the day before, but which need to be taken care of *right now*. Checking your watch (which you've set 10 minutes fast) you see that it's 7:35. "It's really only 7:25," you remind yourself. Your inner brat adds that you have at least 15 minutes, since you can still make it to work on time if you leave at 7:40, providing traffic is not too bad.

Next thing you know, it's 7:55, and you go flying around looking for your shoes, your keys or that recipe you promised to Gladys at work. Now there's no way you're going to be there by 8:00. But tomorrow for sure . . .

How did this happen? You can see that the problem is not lack of time -- you have enough time to get ready.

The problem is what you do with the time. Your inner brat distracts you, makes excuses about the urgencies of nonessential tasks, or rationalizes that you don't have to conform to a rigid schedule.

And it's not just work or other obligations that your inner brat resists. It also balks at preparing for things that you're looking forward to. Just as with work, getting ready for positive events requires focus and blocking out distractions. Since these involve effort and concentration, your inner brat wants nothing to do with them.

As you can see, if you want to be successful at mastering your chronic lateness, it's not enough to merely rearrange your schedule. You must also understand how your inner brat sabotages your best efforts to be on time by distorting your priorities. Once you get to know your inner brat, you'll be on your way to breaking your lateness habit.

Pauline Wallin, Ph.D. is a psychologist in Camp Hill, PA, and author of "Taming Your Inner Brat: A Guide for Transforming Self-defeating Behavior" (Wildcat Canyon Press, 2004) She is also a life coach.

Visit http://www.innerbrat.com for more information, and subscribe to her free, monthly Inner Brat Newsletter.

Car Insurance Rates | Dental Insurance | Health Insurance | Home Owner Insurance | Life Insurance Quote

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

Are You Running Out Of Time?
Here's some time management tips to try:1) Set strict office hours and stick to them - use an answering machine to pick up calls after hours. Don't be tempted to "pick up just one more call".2) Have a day timer (or hand held PDA) that you write everything down in and carry with you.3) If you're running late to pick up the kids call the school - keep doctors/dentists/personal phone numbers in the book too - you can book appointments while you're waiting in a line or stuck ...(related: Time Management)

Effective Time Management - Delegating Techniques
Do you manage your time or does your time manage you? Do you start your day knowing what you want to achieve today and how you are going to achieve it?Time management is a skill. You should learn the basics and learn how to implement it.Following a thorough research on the topic of time management , I strongly suggest you us...(related: Time Management)

How To Find More Time In Your Day-balancing Career And Family
Goal Planning-Achieving balance in a person's life requires assessment of one's goals and priorities. This translates into sitting down in a quiet atmosphere and taking just a few minutes to think about "What are my priorities in life? What could I never live without?" When one is clear about the things that are important to them in li...(related: Time Management)

Organize Your Time
Most people want to start a home-based business to make more money to supplement their income. The issue though, is finding the time to make this happen.Most people are busy, with family, an existing job, and the general feeling that there are not enough hours in a day.However, extra time to start a home-based business project can almost always be found. It may mean giving up or changing a few of your favorite pastimes, like watching TV but if you become successful with your home-based business project, you will have all the time you want for doing whatever you want to do.The first thing you nee...(related: Time Management)

Realistic Time Budgeting Tips
I'm sure we've all had the experience of having a certain block of time available, and our to-do list tasks or goals that we want to accomplish in that time frame, only to turn around at the end of that period of time to have the frustrating experience of not getting nearly enough done that we thought we could. What happened? Where did all the time go? This can be in our personal / family lives, our jobs or our businesses.Many of the frustrations of this are due to our expectations of what we can accomplish in that amount of time too high, and unrealistic. When we can look at it more objectively, it can reduce stress in our lives, and give more of a sense of accomplishment when we do reach our goals.Say you have 6 hours available to...(related: Time Management)

A Time-saving Programming Tactic That Doesn?t Work
Let's say that you have a software project that's under severe time pressure. Let's say that this deadline is so tight that you already know it will involve many late nights of black coffee and frenetic programming. What can you do to make this process go faster?I honestly don't know, since the correct answer will depend on one's individual circumstances. However, I can tell you how many programmers do respond under such circumstances. They decide to save time by skipping over the software planning and design phase, and immediately start coding away.To an inexperienced or otherwise undisciplined programmer, this seems to make sense. After all, the finished product is what truly matters, right? The customer doesn't care about flowcharts, class diagrams or software archi...(related: Time Management)

6 Time Management Tips For Moms
Many of you have expressed the challenge of not having enough time to accomplish all your needed tasks and not being organized. Having good organization and management skills is absolutely imperative to your business. Being well organized can greatly affect your successfulness. Applying a few of the following tips will help you become more organized and make better use of your time.1. Learn to delegateMost of us are mothers and as moms we tend to automatically take on everything and are used to doing everything ourselves. There's absolutely nothing wrong with delegating different tasks.2. Set business hoursOne way to keep yourself and your business organized is to set regular business hours. You know Monday through Friday 1 - 4 or whatever times works best for you and your family and try to stick to it as much as p...(related: Time Management)

Talkin About Chicken
Yesterday, I'd just gotten comfortable at my favorite table in my neighborhood Starbucks when I noticed two 70-somethings seated at the table next to me. Although they sat mere inches from one another, they communicated as if they were standing on opposite ends of a dark mountain tunnel."I'M WILLING TO GO FAR FOR GOOD CHICKEN," bellowed the gentleman in yellow pants on the left."YOU DO LOVE YOUR CHICKEN," agreed his companion, a man whose enormous black glasses made him look like a political cartoon.<...(related: Time Management)

31 Ways To Get An Extra Hour Out Of Each Day

How can you get an extra hour out of each day? For many small business owners this is a daily challenge.

I myself have often wished that there were 27 hours in the day. I'll even settle for 25.

Here are some tips to help you squeeze those extra minutes out of your day. Of course, you can adapt these so that they will fit in with your situation. I hope these are helpful to you.

1. Get up earlier

2. Watch less TV(I mean how many Law & Order spinoffs does one need to watch?)

3. Avoid allowing others to waste your time

4. If you don't have to drive to work, use that time to study or planIf you do drive to work listen to a motivational tape on the way to work instead of that mindless dj talk.

5. Organize your work; do it systematically.

6. Make creat...(related: Time Management)

Work, Work, Work: Making Each Moment Count
Time, time, time. It seems there is never enough of this precious life support. In a previous story about time, I quoted the following aphorism:TIME IS MY FRIEND,TIME IS MY ALLYI HAVE ALL THE TIME I NEEDFOR EVERYTHING I WANT TO DO.I received a lot of grateful responses and some questions, indicating just how hard it is to balance our time requests these days. I want to respond to a subscriber who said she is "too busy to attend to personal needs vs. work, work, work" and is looking for a way to take care of herself while meeting the requirements of her workplace.Here are a couple of suggestions for anyone who is struggling to keep work and personal life in balance.First, don't judge yourself abo...(related: Time Management)

Time Management: How To Make Your Meetings More Productive
In most organizations, meetings are often the biggest time-wasters. With a bit of planning, it's possible to both shorten the time spent in meetings and to make that time more productive. Here's how.* Let all participants know why you're holding the meeting, what's to be accomplished and what each participant is being called upon to contribute. This should be communicated well before the meeting.* If any of the participants need to do preparatory work before the meeting, mention that fact. Don't take it for granted that such preparation will be taken care of automatically.<...(related: Time Management)