“A useless habit is punctuality,” as Zhvanetsky said. Indeed, today it is rare to find people who are careful with their own and other people’s time. Nevertheless, time is the most valuable resource, irreplaceable, so punctual people are valued at all times. How to follow the basic rule of time management and train yourself not to be late?
Get into the Army Habit
In the army regulations there is such a thing as a “corporal gap” - a reserve time (usually 5-10 minutes) before the start of an event, taking into account which a person comes to a meeting. For example, you were informed that the business brunch would start at 12:00, and in order not to be late, you arrived a little earlier than the agreed time, at 11:45. If you make this technique a habit, then earning a reputation as a punctual person will not be difficult. However, you should not reach the point of fanaticism in this matter and arrive to the meeting an hour and a half in advance.
HOW TO NOT BE LATE? LOOKING FOR REASONS FOR LATES
Try to figure out the reason for your lateness. Some cannot clearly calculate the time, others like to attract attention to themselves (latecomers always attract the attention of others). There are also cases when a person does not want to go somewhere and therefore he “tries” to linger in every possible way. For example, when he doesn’t like his job, feels uncomfortable in the team, doesn’t want to see his boss. It may even be a subconscious desire to be fired. Another reason is the desire to sleep. Many people have difficulty waking up and are often late.
Do daily planning
It’s not easy to keep everything in your head, especially those that are time-bound. Visualize important and not so important things by writing them down in your diary. This will help you structure your entire to-do list for the day, prioritize them—spend more time on one thing today, and put off another for the next day. This way you will understand what real time management is, you will get more done and, as a result, you will be able to avoid being late anywhere. You will have a tangible sense of time.
Personal development
How to stop being late?
There is a category of comrades who never know how to arrive on time. And they even manage to arrive at the plane almost in the last minutes.
I relate to people with the “Time” meta-program (I’ll tell you what it is later) and this behavior irritates me, to put it mildly.
I had a friend whom I couldn’t stop being late .
At first, I arrived exactly at the time we agreed on, then, taught by “bitter experience,” 30-40 minutes later. And still I have to wait for her. It seemed like she had a “built-in determinant” of the time of our meetings.
No matter what time I showed up, he added from 15 to 40 minutes, after which my friend showed up. In response to my violent indignation, she always had a couple of very good reasons.
One fine day I got tired of it: she was late, I was indignant. Everything is predictable and nothing changes.
“We need to do something about this”: I decided when she was once again delayed for about forty minutes.
When she, out of breath, rushed into the cafe with the usual apologies, I silently nodded and dialed the phone number. For about twenty minutes I discussed my “working moments.” Then someone very fortunately called me: we chatted sweetly and leisurely about nothing. Then, I walked away for about ten minutes to “powder my nose.”
Finally, I was tired of staring in the mirror myself, and then I returned to the table and paid attention to my slightly dumbfounded friend.
Surprisingly, I didn’t even expect such an effect: for the first time she was not late for our next meeting. :)
I remembered this story again when I came across an interesting story from the life of the famous psychotherapist Milton Erickson:
One of the medical college students was consistently late for every lecture, every coursework and laboratory work. And although she studied excellently, her fellow students kicked her out of classes because she kept them late. She was an unsurpassed master at coming up with good reasons for being late. No sanctions or exhortations helped. Everyone has already come to terms with the fact that it is impossible to stop her from being late .
Milton Erickson
A year later, Milton Erickson began teaching on the faculty.
Classes started as usual, according to schedule, at 8 am. After 20 minutes, Ann appeared in the audience.
At this moment, at a sign from Erickson, the entire group stood up and silently greeted the student. In complete silence she walked to her place.
After the lecture, Milton Erickson walked out with Ann. They walked along the corridor and everyone who came towards them gave the student silent greetings. This continued until the end of the lectures. The next day, Ann was one of the first to arrive to class.
She calmly endured the reproaches and remarks of teachers, the dean and her fellow students, but could not bear this silent greeting.
While they tried to discipline her, Milton Erickson took a different approach: greeting shows respect. He congratulated her on gaining such power over everyone.
Erickson made it clear to her that she was using her influence incorrectly.
And when she realized this, she was able to understand something else: how to use her power constructively. Where others tried to change her behavior with words, Erickson used nonverbal means and brought her to the realization that she was using her influence to her own detriment.
There is a rule in NLP: “The system is controlled by the one who shows the greatest flexibility.”
In other words, when you see that your behavior is not producing the desired results, change it (or change the usual way of responding).
Each person develops stable patterns of behavior throughout his life.
They can be changed by “breaking the circle” of reactions to which a person no longer responds. Do you remember how many times this has happened in your life? The same action causing the same reaction. Sometimes this goes on for years.
“The participants are dancing the same dance” and are indignant: “Why is nothing happening?”
Also, my friend got used to the words of reproach that she received from me and other people. And she no longer responded to them.
Finding herself in an unusual role, she suddenly realized how unpleasant it was when her own interests always came to the fore. It's funny, but now our meetings happen almost on time: 5-7 minutes of being late doesn't count anymore (especially since sometimes I'm late).
Anecdote on the topic:
