Are you always running late for everything? Never on time for anything? Have you become a master of apologies and excuses? Well, you’re not alone, and here’s why and what you can do to change it.
It is called by many names,
=Tardiness
=Late
=Fashionably late
=Periodically late
=Chronicle lateness
=Chronically extremely late
No matter what name you call it, late is late. But don’t beat yourself up over it too much since it’s a form of ADHD so they say. Luckily for you, this personality trait can be managed. Even though there is no permanent cure you can still break this bad habit as I did.
I never used to be late, I was the type of person that was always on time or early. People could rely on me and depend on me to be there when I said I would. I never missed an appointment time or was ever late for anything, then one day something in my brain changed and I was late for Everything.
It didn’t matter what or where it was I had to be. I just couldn’t seem to make it on time and I hated myself for it. I went from being punctual to being late, my friends got mad at me and my job had to talk with me about it. I felt like I was a failure and was letting everyone down, but I was wrong. I did research and found out I wasn’t alone.
Why Is This Happening
Some information I read claimed that the main reason why people are late is that they failed to judge time on their tasks accurately. (For me most of the time it was sleeping in too long)
Some said that people will fall into one of four categories:
=The perfectionist (has to have everything perfect)
=The dreamer (allows their mind to wander off the task at hand)
=The defier (goes against what needs to be done)
=The crisis maker (needs pressure or stress to be motivated)
It sounds nice if it was only those reasons, but they forgot to mention things like health or mental conditions.
Say for example depression or anxiety can play a big role in how fast a person gets out the door, and let’s just combine that with the fact that you don’t value yourself because you have become late getting to things. And for kicks let’s just top it off with people putting you down and calling you rude or inconsiderate thinking that your time is more precious than theirs.
You’ll start to understand why someone might get into the habit of being late. It’s A No-Win Situation when you think of it that way.
BUT it’s not all bad, People tend to live longer that are always late. It’s because they take the time to smell the roses so to speak. They’re also healthier and more likely to have success in the tasks that they do take on.
Once you realize you’re not the only one who suffers from chronic lateness it’s an easier pill to swallow and you’ll stop beating yourself up over it as much, knowing that it’s like a bad habit or illness that you have to overcome.
Thankfully like most illnesses, it can be helped maybe, but not completely cured. Because something will always happen in life to make you run behind on time, but once you have learned that you’ll be able to control it more, which will ease the guilt you are feeling right now.
Just knowing that you’re not alone and that you’re not doing it on purpose and once you get that through your thick skull (like I had to) you can move forward to better your time management.
Fixing The Tardiness
First, take a deep breath you’re not alone and it’s nothing to be ashamed of.
Second let your work, friends, and family know what’s going on so they will be less mad at you when you run late and you won’t lose your job. This only works if they know what’s going on so they can be more understanding.
Turn all the clocks in your house and car back by at least 10 minutes or more.
Nowadays just about everybody carries a phone and it can have the option of setting alarms. I do this a lot and set it about 5 minutes before I need to be somewhere.
Make a to-do list and prioritize it by the time it will take you to get something done. Now add 10 to 30 minutes to each task, and keep a record of how long it actually takes.
Is there anything on that list you can push to the next day or take off so you can have room for the unforeseen troubles that always raise their ugly head when you have no time for them?
Don’t try to do it all in one day. If you do great if not, don’t stress there’s always tomorrow.
You’re not being rude when you say no to adding just one more thing to your list that someone asks you to do. Even if you don’t think it will take that long you have a list for a reason Stick-To-It.
If you do get everything on your list done that day then start on the things for tomorrow.
Are there things on that list that you can multitask.
Is it hard getting your day started? Then try setting your clothes out for the next day just make sure to have a backup plan
(Your backup being for the unforeseen) Say you set clothes out for warm weather (as the weather app shows the night before) and when you get up it turns out that a magical cold front showed up out of nowhere and the temperature dropped by 20° now it is pouring down rain as it does here in Oklahoma all the time, but since you planned on “The Back-up Plan” you know what outfit to wear for the colder weather.
Another thing you might want to try is to GO on a mini-vacation. Nothing planned or scheduled, nothing to be on time for. Turn off all your alarms, and don’t watch the clock. This can help to reset your internal clock so when you get back home to your alarms again you might find that you are back on time. (This helps me a lot to start showing up earlier to things again.)
If you do show up to things early, try to bring that book you have been wanting to read with you or in my case this blog that I’m doing right now before I clock into work on time.
Being on time, especially in the workforce is the second most important skill to have.
It makes you seem more professional, dependable and committed to your job and it gives you more confidence in yourself that you won’t be missing anything at work.
Now does this mean you’ll NEVER be late and you’ll always be on time? Heck No because life happens and you’ll still end up late to things, but you won’t beat yourself up over it knowing that you’re not alone, fighting this battle. You just need to try harder next time to manage your time a little better.
When someone tries to give you a hard time and puts you down because of it tell them that you suffer from the disease “Chronic Lateness Syndrome” and that you’re working on improving it (sounds like a bad illness right? So to be mean and mess with people sometimes, I like to do a fake cough into my hand and watch them back up.) If they don’t want to believe you and say you’re making it up tell them to look it up or better yet send them to this blog.
You have the power to manage it, it just takes time to get to that point. You’re not alone keep working at it.
Good Tid Bit
Have you ever heard someone say they were fashionably late? So how fashionably late to an event can you be without being too rude? The answer is 15 minutes.
How long should you wait if your date is late? About 30 minutes is a good rule of thumb. Same thing for an event like a baseball game or concert.
Try and prioritize work as being the main place that you’re never late to over everything else so you won’t get fired and have to deal with that headache. But if you are late just try a little harder next time.
What have you found that helps you be on time for things? I would love to hear from you so please leave a comment below, and remember you are not alone when it comes to being late so don’t be too hard on yourself.
Make sure to check out some of my other blogs like the ones on how to stay awake and how to get energized in the morning
Disclaimer:
All information on this website is found from Google, word of mouth, other sources, or my own experiences. All photos, videos, and or recordings posted are copyright. I participate in affiliate programs. I may earn a commission from items purchased through my blogs.
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