Are You Running Late?

December 2nd, 2008 | by Jack Reichert

Do you find yourself late more often than not?

Many people are personally insulted when they are kept waiting. No matter how many apologies, if someone knows that they will be kept waiting then they will not want to meet with you in the future.

But all is not lost. I used to be either exactly on time, or off by almost an hour (before or afterward) chronically! Developing a sense of time can take time. But it is doable. If you don’t want to be that person that people dread to meet with then here are a few easy steps to cultivate a better understanding of where your time goes, so that you can learn to be prompt.

This is I want you to do this the next time you are going to meet someone.

First: Make a list of everything you will need to have ready before you go.

Second: Calculate how long each item on your list will take. Also estimate how long it takes to get where you need to go. Now add fifteen minutes. (If you would like to repair the damage then you should make a point of being early. Bring a book or work with you so that you won’t be bored, or loose the time that you are waiting.)

Third: After you meet the person, when you get home review your list and see how far off you were. Make mental notes to adjust your timing for next time.

Remember that it is unprofessional and is seen as disrespectful to keep people waiting. If you would like to overcome this, it will be a learning process, but you’ll see that you’ll get better and better as you go along.

Image Credit: Kevin

Tags: apologies, promptness, punctuality, Time Management

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 8:25 pm and is filed under Build Yourself. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.