How to be on time
April 4th, 2006In my job at Union University, I have a service that sends me queries from journalists who are looking for experts to speak on various topics for stories. The service just sent this query from a writer for Marie Claire magazine:
“I’m seeking an expert who can offer chronically late women specific tips to help them show up on time.”
Um, does it really take tips from “an expert”? I can think of several, and I’ll bet you can, too. Here’s my best tip on how to show up on time: Leave earlier.
Can you offer any more?
Get your hair cut short. I wash mine every couple of days, I haven’t used a brush or comb in years- my primp time is way down now.
Drive faster.
Jeremy, I’m with you. I haven’t owned a brush since my first week of college.
No joke: I know a faculty member who claimed to suffer from “chronological impairment.” She claimed under the Americans with Disabilities Act that she could not be forced to come to teach on time because she suffered from this “disease.” She was eventually fired for missing class so often and then turned around and sued her department chair and the university. !!!!!!!!
There are many people who struggle with lateness and at times I have been one of them. Often, it is from perfectionism that one is late. People who get a rush from doing things at the last minute will find that they get a lot accomplished between the time they should have led and the time they need to leave.
I think the turning point for me was looking at lateness for what it truly is: rudeness and unprofessionalism.
It doesn’t matter how good you are, there is no excuse for being late. It is when you stop making excuses and start figuring out how to overcome it that you make progress.
I recently blogged how I use Airset to remind me of appointments over my Palm, e-mail, and cell phone text messaging. It helps me greatly.
Until one stops making excuses, it is impossible to deal with the root of the problem. Being late is another form of procrastination.
I just got another query in — “what women could learn from men.” I may have to tackle that one (and vice versa) in an upcoming post. Now that might be interesting.
If you are a company, if a person is late, dock their pay. You’d be surprised how many people who formerly struggled with chronic lateness, suddenly find a cure…when they start losing money.
Lateness is: disrespectful, rude, arrogant, discourteous, selfish, and in the vast majority of cases inexcusable.
A little strong you say? Just wait ’til I get going.
When you have a habit of punctuality, when something comes up where you cannot help but be late, people are understanding. However, when you are consistently late, no one believes you. It is the “boy who cried wolf” scenerio.
I also think that we as Christians have a responsibility to be where we say we are going to be and do what we say we are going to do. As others have pointed out, I think lateness send a very bad message.
A great quote i heard once, that actually has very little to do with this topic, is: If you have no time for God, then time is your god.
Sorry, I know that is random, but I think it’s good.
If you’re runninglate to church on Sunday morning, have your husband sit in a running car in the garage with the kids and honk the horn incessantly. That’ll hurry her up!
One of my favorite comments by Homer Simpson was when he was asked about the 55 MPH spee limit. “Sure it wil save a few lives but millions will be late!”
I get as annoyed as anyone with people who are late, but it’s worth remembering that interpreting lateness as “disrespectful, rude, arrogant, discourteous, and selfish” is a phenomenon that is almost entirely unique to our culture. In most other parts of the world - other than Japan and parts of Europe - relationship is valued much more than timeliness. Obviously, to a certain extent we need to operate within the rules of our culture, but there’s a real danger in presuming that our time is so valuable that it’s inexcusable for someone else to “waste it” be being late.
Query: When, then, IS it acceptable to be late?
Example of sticky situation: Two of my classmates & I were expounding on the annoyance of chronic tardiness among our peers (a group of kids were a half hour late returning from a lunch break). We were on choir tour during spring break. I made a comment on the rudeness and irresponsibility of it when someone listening to the conversation interrupted.
“Wait, you think it’s rude?” the person asked.
“Yes, I do,” I replied.
“You mean, like you were chronically late to the van yesterday?”
My face turned red (with annoynace, not embarrasment) because yesterday was a free day, we were visiting a tourist area, we made several half-hour or so stops, and were not given a specific time to return to the vehicle. Additionally, I was never more than about five minutes late.
No, I said to myself in response to this person’s question, I mean how YOU were chronically late to the 9 a.m. class we had last semester. I kept the comment to myself because I honestly can’t stand it when people are mean just to be funny.
Was I justified? Or did this person have a point that no matter what the situation, one shouldn’t be late?
I couldn’t help but share the irony of this person’s rebuking me when he/she is punctual about 50 percent of the time while I am punctual about 89 percent of the time.
Might there be a plank in your eye?