We all know those people. They might be friends, they might be colleagues, they might be potential partners. They are chronically late! Not by a couple of minutes but by 15 – 30 or even blowing off the meeting at the last minute because something “important” came up.
If this is you, pay attention:
– You are about to get fired
– You are about to get dumped
– You are going to be ghosted
I have a friend of the family who is chronically late. ALWAYS. The story I tell myself about that is, that we are not important to this individual and, therefore, let’s just stop getting together. You see, I have a belief system that says if I am on time, I am late. So, when you are late, you are saying this is not important.
There is a colleague of mine who is on the cusp of getting fired and they don’t understand why. They feel the “boss” has it in for her. The reality is she continually is either late or misses meetings because she has other issues that come up. If you have a meeting with the boss, unless someone is bleeding, or the business is on fire you better show up.
Time is like inventory. If it’s wasted, it is gone forever and executives are not willing to lose that kind of time.
I am going to assume that if you are late it’s not because you are just being a jerk. It’s probably because you do not know how much time things take. Here are some tips.
- For a week, keep a time diary. Every 15 to 30 minutes jot down or type into your device what you have been doing. And how long it took. For example, If you are meeting someone for lunch, time the time it takes you to grab your keys, go out to the car, drive to the location, park, and enter the building. Do not stop timing until you enter the building.
- When you sit down to write your blog posts, time it from start to stop including edits and proofs, how long does it take?
- When you decide to set five appointments, how many calls did it take and how long did it take you to schedule five?
Too often people say they will do something and be someplace by a certain time. And their alarm goes off either at the default 15 – minutes prior or at the time it was due. If you are going to a meeting at 9:00 and you get up from your desk at 9:00 to head to the meeting…you are late.
Don’t lose a job, a client, or a friend because you can’t manage your time. If you would like some help, check out the resources available at https://ras-squared.com
