In Chase Of the Clock Hands
Your man, teachers, colleagues, boss, even your best friend and parents, look as if they are in collusion and repeat over and over again with different intonation: «You are always late!». Hundred times you promised yourself, that you’ll exert every effort, to be more punctual. But again you are late!
There are people who are never late, there are those, who sometimes can be late for the reasons beyond their control, and there are those, who never come in time. If you can refer yourself to the third type – well, this can be and should be overcome.
Let’s try to analyze, why you do not succeed to do everything in time. Only having understood the reasons, you will be able to solve the problem.
1. Do not over-estimate your forces. Probably, making plans for a day, you suppose to do more than you physically can. Define what is more important for you, and do it first. Tell people who count on you (for example, your boss) that you’ll be able to do only those things, which you have time for. Make a clear list of activities. It is rather boring, but it works: start a personal organizer and write down in it what you are going to do .
Thus you will not only become more punctual but also will never clean forget, for example, about an important event. Choose the task of a higher priority, and do an accent on it keeping in mind its importance. There are always activities which can wait. But there are issues of the day which request an immediate decision. Planning your day, take into account that any activity may take a little more time, than usually. Simply speaking, you need to assign more time for it than it usually takes. This will prevent unpleasant situations, and if there will be no mess-ups, you will have time for something else.
2. When calculating time you need to get somewhere, always add at least half a hour. Let us assume, that it takes you about 20 minutes, so you have to go out in 50 minutes or even an hour prior to the appointed time. You never know what can happen. You can get into a traffic jam, your transport can be late or you will not find the necessary address immediately, if it is the first time you go there.
And do not sit with your feet up, if a meeting or a date is appointed somewhere near your house: she, who lives nearer, is constantly late. So go out a bit earlier, even if it is going to take you only five minutes to stroll to the cafe. Make arrangements in places, comfortable for the waiting person, so that, while you are late, the man will feel comfortable, an will not have to stand in the rain, but will, for example, have a cup of coffee.
3. Weather can be rather capricious. In order not to be in an awkward situation because of an unexpected rain, drop or rise in temperature, make several sets of clothes at once. So that not to waste time on ironing and cleaning shoes immediately before going out, do it overnight. Besides you will do it much better, than in the morning.
Learn to keep your clothes always ready for «usage» at any moment. Therefore always assort and put your things in order right after arrival home or before going to bed (divide it into groups: to be washed, cleaned, ironed). Do not stock things on an ironing board, and do not hang them on chairs. Have you ever noticed that finally nearly all your clothes are on them? Take everything away into the wardrobe. Otherwise you will hurry and scurry about the apartment and will find nothing.
4. Remember your wonderful school years and prepare your bag beforehand. As a rule, archaeological excavations in order to find out “if I haven’t forgotten anything” take no less than ten minutes. And usually this happens right before going out, when you already need not even to run out but to go like a shot from a gun.
Keep your purse, season ticket, keys from the car, documents, the pass to your job (the student ID card, the ticket to the library and so on), cosmetics bag, your mobile phone, notebook, the umbrella, your favorite book or magazine to read on the way, – in short, all things which you can’t do without, but which often tend to be lost in the most unsuitable moment, in some fixed place.
Better if this place will be near the exit from the apartment, for example on a table or on the shelf before the mirror in the corridor. And keep in mind: things can disappear. Each of us had such situation, when, for example, the keys disappeared without a trace, and then appeared in the same place, where you had just examined everything very attentively. It is a pity, that usually the lost things are found, when you are already late and now can just stay home. Therefore the territory of searching must be as small as possible. To look in the stand and to ransack the apartment are not the same things.
5. Use the clock. A brilliant idea for those who are often late: put all clocks in the house (including the telephone and computer) some minutes forward. And let them all show different time (in a range of 15 minutes). When the clock are a bit fast and you do not know exactly, how many minutes left – fifteen, ten or only five, then you will begin to hurry after the hands of the clock, and thus, will go out a little bit earlier. The simplest and the most offensive method to be late is to oversleep. It can happen to everyone. If you are not sure that after a night party you will get up with the first rays of sun, set several alarm clocks. All of them should be set to different time with the interval of 5-10 minutes, so that they start ringing one after another. Place them in different places and as far from the bed as possible. This will not let you just stretch the arm and switch them off.
Wear the watch. And do not forget to look at it! Choose any beautiful watch that you like. You can have a few of them to match different clothes. They will constantly attract your attention, and thus you will remember about the time.
6. And finally, be honest with yourself. Why do you allow yourself to be late? It is impolite, and makes you unorganized and out-of-control. You should think and admit: probably, the reason of your constant being late for the work, is not that it takes you long time to get there, but that your work is not interesting for you anymore and you simply have no desire to go there.
If you are late again, do not forget to apologize every time and if possible to explain that your delay is not the display of disrespect, but the problem you’re working on.