5 Practical Tips to Help You Always Be On Time
In this post, I’m sharing 5 practical tips to help you avoid running late all the time and get proactive so you can start working on becoming the kind of person who’s always on time and punctual.
Most of us know why it’s important not run late.
Not only does it show the other person that we respect their time, we also show ourselves that we respect our own time as well and by doing this we feel less stressed overall and more in control of our days as a result.
How often you find yourself accidentally double booking something or not accounting for the commuter rush and ending up racing to get to an appointment by the right time will depend on your ability to plan well and the strategies you use.
I’ve put together 5 simple and useful tips you can implement today.
1. Schedule appointments and commitments for the correct time slot in your week ⏰.
Rather than accidentally overbooking yourself and not ending up with enough time, firstly look carefully at your diary to see where you have things already going on where there may issues with running late, and secondly, look at where you can add some extra clearance around your commitments first before booking anything else in.
Doing it this way will give you more control over the best time to lock something in ✔️.
2. Allow enough buffer time before you go…
I find a lot of people go wrong with their planning when they don’t add in any buffer time to get places or allow for traffic congestion (and for kids to throw a last minute tantrum over picking out the wrong coloured socks!).
When you build in a decent amount of buffer on top of how long it will take you to commute , you get to be unhurried and arrive in a calm state of mind.
If things go pear-shaped, which they will from time to time, knowing that you have a little extra time up your sleeve to still make it really helps your brain chill out.
This is a skill that takes a little time to develop especially when you don’t know how much time you should build in, but I’d recommend adding an extra 10-15 mins on top of your travel time.
3. Get good at checking in early what you have on for the day and start paying attention to the clock 👀
While you don’t have to be overly pedantic about clock-watching, having a general idea of what’s on for the day is very useful and a good sign of proactivity.
If time then starts to get away from you, it’s much easier to get back on track early enough so that you don’t throw your whole day out.
4. Decide to be a person who’s punctual.
A key missing piece most people forget is also shifting how you think about your time and to stop telling yourself that you always run late.
It might sound easier said than done, but when we tell ourselves these kinds of made-up stories, it’s not helpful nor supportive of shifting our behaviour for the better and getting us to make the changes we need to. This is because we always have a way of finding the evidence to support our current beliefs, especially when they’re not helpful. *See - I’m late again!
Instead, try telling yourself “I’m the kind of person who is punctual and because I’m always on time, I’m more organised as a result!”.
And if that’s a stretch for your current belief system, try “I’m working on becoming someone who likes to be early to things”.
5. Work on having boundaries and schedule flexibility.
Sometimes we also run late because we’ve been a little too slack with sticking to an important boundary we’ve set for ourselves (this is the one I struggle with the most especially when I’m visiting friends!).
For example you might want to do a yoga class on a Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm but you’ve been having a lunch date and said to yourself, just ten more minutes…. (next minute…1 hour passes)
While this can have other payoffs, it will usually result in you then scrambling to get home, get changed and make it to the studio on time while compounding your stress levels along the way. Not a good feeling!
So there you have it - my 5 practical tips to never running late again 👊🏻.
If you give some of these a go, it will surely help you become someone who’s much more punctual and knows she’s always going to run on time.
You’ll ultimately be in control of your day then!
Valli x
If you enjoyed this post, I invite you to JOIN my email newsletter “Weekly Insights ⭐️” today to get more helpful tips from me each week and all the latest updates. You can join by 👉🏻 SUBSCRIBING HERE.
You can also find me over on 👉🏻 Instagram for daily organising + productivity content.
