Article by Kevin L. DeWitt

Feeling as though you’re always running twenty minutes behind schedule is an unhappy feeling.  Having to rush, forgetting things in your haste, dealing with annoyed people when you arrive … it’s no fun.

If you find yourself chronically late, what steps can you take to be more prompt … and as a result, happier? First you need to ask yourself why you’re late.  Then you can see more easily what you need to modify.

There are many, many reasons we are all late.  Here are seven common reasons for chronic tardiness and suggestions on how we might address them:

Sleep too late?  If you’re so exhausted in the morning that you sleep until the last possible moment, it’s time to think about going to sleep earlier the night before.  Most people don’t get enough sleep, and sleep deprivation is a real drag on your happiness … and your health.  Try turning off the light sooner each night.  And try to go to sleep at the same time every night (yes, including Friday and Saturday nights!).

Trying to get one last thing done?  This seems to be a common cause of tardiness.  If you are always trying to answer one more email or putting away one more load of laundry before you leave … then tell yourself you need to be there 10 minutes earlier.  Try this: take a task or chore with you (your journal, or sorting coupons … anything) that you can do.  Tell yourself that you need the ten minutes on the other end to write your journal entry, sort your coupons, or whatever your brought to do.

Allowing for the commute?  You tell yourself it takes twenty minutes to get to work, but if it actually takes thirty minutes, you’re going to be chronically late.  Have you exactly identified the time you need to leave?  That’s what worked for me when I had to make it to the office through southern California.  Before I identified that exact time, I had only a vague sense of how the morning was running, and I usually thought I had more time than I actually did.

Finding your keys/wallet/phone/sunglasses?  Nothing is more frustrating than searching for lost objects when you’re running late.  Pick a place in your house for your important items, and put those things in that spot, every time.  Rule of thumb – these items always come off and are put in the same place when coming home … so they will always be there when you need them in a hurry.  I keep everything important in the kitchen desk or in cubby holes above the kitchen desk.

Are others in your house are disorganized?  Your wife can’t find her phone, your son can’t find his soccer cleats … so you’re late.  Yes it’s tough to get yourself organized, and it’s even more difficult to help others get organized.  Try setting up the “key things” place in your house.  So, the night before: push the kids get their school stuff organized; lean on the outfit-changing types to pick their outfits; get lunches ready, etc.

Postponing showing up because you don’t want to go?  If you dread going to work that much, or you hate school so deeply, or wherever your destination might be, you’re giving yourself a clear signal that you need think about making a change in your life.  There… it’s been said.

Late or not, if you find yourself rushing around every morning, consider waking up earlier.  Yes, it’s tough to give up those last precious moments of sleep – especially when it’s 17 degree outside - and it’s even tougher to go to bed earlier and cut into what, for many people, is their leisure time.  But it does help.

So, what are some other strategies that work if you suffer from chronic lateness?

“We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.”
-Nelson Mandela

“I hate being placed on committees. They are always having meetings at which half are absent and the rest late.”
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

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