Nobody likes to be late. It means stress, a lack of respect and sometimes, a significant loss of money. If you feel identified with the fact that you always try to leave home with enough time to arrive on time, but for one reason or another, you end up arriving late and you don’t know how to change the situation, you have come to the right place. In today’s article, we will talk about some basic tips that can help you improve punctuality.
Fortunately, we all have the ability, through techniques and behaviors, to turn tardiness around. It is true that lateness can be explained by several factors, such as certain personality traits or other disorders. For example, a study showed that people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have difficulty remembering commitments and concentrating their attention on a single activity and, consequently, are very prone to tardiness.
In this regard, the workplace is one of the places where being late is the most distressing. Experts on the subject link arriving late to work with job dissatisfaction. That is, when someone is not happy at their workplace, unconsciously, they are always late. Dissatisfaction translates into tardiness, as the individual seeks to avoid that space in which he or she does not feel comfortable.
12 tips to avoid being late for work
It is clear that there are many reasons or factors that interfere with punctuality, however, this does not mean that it is an issue that generates feelings of unease in many people that interfere with their quality of life. As we mentioned, the workplace is the place that causes the most stress due to lateness. Therefore, we will focus on work and then we will present a series of tools to use to start arriving on time.
1. Self-knowledge
The first step to changing any behavior is to reflect on why. In this case, we must ask ourselves what we do to always be late. It is crucial to carry out an introspection exercise where you can ask yourself if you miscalculate time, if unforeseen events arise, you dedicate more time than you should to certain tasks or if you simply find it difficult to get up. In addition, it is also important to reflect on how this can improve your life, and after doing so, become aware that you need a change and that this will have a positive impact on your well-being.
2. Create a strategy
To be punctual, we must be meticulous and create an action plan. In other words, calculate how many minutes it takes you to complete all your preparations, write down how much it costs you to get from home to work, include in that time the possible appearance of unforeseen events and finally, design your strategy based on this analysis.
3. Get up much earlier
It is common that the main problem with arriving late to work is something as simple as having a hard time getting out of bed. We usually set the alarm clock just in time and many times, we make the mistake of postponing it. This is the perfect combination to arrive late if any type of unexpected situation arises, no matter how small. It is best to avoid this situation completely and set the alarm clock well in advance. According to experts, half an hour earlier would be the right thing to do to get rid of tardiness completely.
4. Get organized the night before
It is very helpful to prepare all the things you need for the day, the night before. It is a way to save time and makes things flow faster and more smoothly. As a good strategy, it helps to write a list of everything you need in your day to make sure you don’t leave anything aside. In it, you can include the things to do that same night and all the things you have to leave for the next day.
5. Set the clocks back
Speaking of strategies, this is one of the most effective and simple. Set all the clocks within your reach back for about ten minutes, and you will see how you will no longer be in a hurry or arrive late. It’s a little trick for your brain that will save you from a lot of trouble. After all, you’ll be ten minutes early everywhere, including work.
6. Transition activities
When we talk about transition activities, we are referring to those that arise when moving from one task to another. For example, getting dressed and realizing that the clothes are wrinkled, wanting to make coffee and realizing that there is no left, or going to the bus and there being a traffic jam. We cannot ignore that these things happen and sometimes we can control them and many other times they are out of our reach. However, we must take it into account and when managing time, we must take these unforeseen events into account so that we are not caught off guard.
7. Visualization technique
It is based on creating a mental scenario of ourselves carrying out an activity. Although it may seem strange, various studies have shown that it is a useful technique when carrying out a task successfully. Returning to the topic at hand, the visualization technique can be valuable to visualize the night before all those actions that you must perform precisely to arrive at work on time.
8. Make use of technology
There are various applications that can be easily downloaded to electronic devices that help us properly manage our time. They send notifications and reminders, with the aim of getting up on time and getting ready without rushing, without forgetting anything and most importantly, without stress.
9. Rephrase your sentences
Get out of your head that your check-in time is 9:00 and you must arrive at that time. How we talk to ourselves goes a long way to changing or improving our behavior. To achieve the goal of arriving at work on time, rephrase your sentences. That is, from now on, it would be helpful if you started telling yourself that you should arrive at work twenty minutes before your starting time. Something as simple as this can change big things.
10. I have to hurry
I have to hurry is a phrase we constantly tell ourselves when we are late for work. Be careful with it, since, far from achieving our goal, it causes stress to intensify and we start the day with much more cortisol than desired. It is normal that in a hurry we forget things and have to go back for them. After all, it ends up taking twice as long.
11. Saying “no” is an option
We must learn to set limits and use the word “no.” If someone invites you out for coffee, or asks you for a favor, don’t feel guilty and refuse. Anything that slows you down is not a good ally for you. If you have people around you who propose things to you when you are short on time, and you accept, you will always continue to be late.
12. Track your progress
There is a lot of research that shows that to be successful in any change we want to make, we need to track our progress. Only then do we know how to detect where we fail and what aspects we should improve.