I have always lived by the mentality that everyone’s time is equally important and that by being late you are disrespecting others valuable time. However, I have learned in adulthood that only half of that is true! Everyone’s time is completely equally valuable but some people are late solely due to poor time management and it has nothing to do with respect or value. Which is why I am sharing these helpful 6 ways to always be on time.
I know that learning to be on time can be a challenge. Especially if you are historically late to things and have tried before to be more timely.
But with some serious focus and effort you can absolutely learn how to always be on time for things!
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The essential 6 tips to always be on time:
Ways to always be on time even if you are normally late!
Tip 1) Correctly using alarm clocks
This tip is super important for being on time every day and comes in a couple different parts:
- Use an actual alarm clock, so not your phone alarm. Why is this important? Because you can get an alarm clock that suits your needs!
- Deep sleeper? Get one that is really loud like this one.
- Always snoozing? Get one that requires you to complete a task or puzzle to turn it off like this one.
- Put the alarm clock not right next to the bed. Put it on top of a dresser across the room or even in your bathroom if the alarm clock is loud enough. This forces you to get out of bed before you can snooze.
Bonus tip: we have an oscillating fan for white noise that has a timer on it. We set it for 6 hours so that it shuts off before we wake up so that staying in bed to stay warm and cozy is less tempting because the cold fan doesn’t blow on the bed in the morning.
Tip 2) Make a “get out of the house” routine
This routine can make a huge difference in helping you get out of the house in a timely manner so you can be on time to everything.
This routine will look different for everyone but to make yours ask yourself these questions:
- What tasks are absolutely necessary to leave in the morning (or any time)?
- How long do each of those tasks take?
- Are there any tasks that are not necessary that could be done in a less pressure filled time?
- Is there anything that could help expedite your routine? (think along the lines of meal prepping breakfast)
Then based on those answers try to make a detailed morning routine and try your hardest to stick to it!
Need to get up earlier to make your routine work? Then read this for help on waking up early every day.
Tip 3) Keep your important items organized and visible
This is extra helpful for anyone who finds themselves regularly looking for things like your keys, wallet, phone, etc.
Start making a conscious effort to put those items in the same exact place when you get home. So you never have to spend time frantically looking for things when you need to leave.
To help with this try getting a hanging key holder. This one has hooks for keys and a basket that you could put your wallet in!
Tip 4) Prepare the night before
The night before can make just as much of a difference as the morning of.
There are lots of things that you can do the night before to help make your morning routine smoother and more efficient. Which will help you get our of the house on time so you can start being on time to everything.
A few of those night before preparation things are:
- Pick out outfits. Don’t just mentally note what you want to wear because you don’t want to risk the clothing items being dirty or unable to find them. Or risk not being able to remember what you had picked. So layout your clothes on a chair or in the bathroom.
- If you have kids that you pick out outfits for then do that the night before as well.
- Get your work bag or backpacks ready. If you have to take things out or them then make sure to put everything back in the night before.
- This also applies to kids backpacks!
- Prep meals. If you like to eat (or your kids do) breakfast then try doing weekly meal preps of breakfasts like oatmeal or freeze-able breakfast burritos.
- Also if you bring lunches then make sure to prep and pack those the night before as well.
You will figure out as you continue to make progress to being on time more that there are things that work for you personally to do the night before that aren’t the items above.
Just make sure to pay attention to what you are doing and think about whether or not it could be done the night before.
Tip 5) Take advantage of technology
Technology is your friend!
Here is a couple ways that technology can help you out with being on time everyday:
- Traffic apps– use a traffic app to set up alerts for your commute path. So if there is an accident or something backing up traffic you can know asap so you can re-adjust and leave earlier to account for this extra traffic.
- Weather apps– use weather apps the night before and morning of so you can a) plan for any weather that could slow you down and b) so you can properly pick out your outfit.
- Also, if you live somewhere that gets a lot of snow then you can try to predict if you will need to shovel or plan for extra time to de-ice and warm up your car.
- Time blocking apps– these apps are great for helping you create your daily routines to ensure you are doing everything in the assigned amount of time.
- Timed coffee makers– this is such an awesome idea! You can now buy coffee makers that you can assign a time to start brewing so you can wake up to freshly brewed coffee and save time in the morning.
Tip 6) Think about how it impacts others
This is a less tangible but still very crucial step.
When you are thinking about creating new routines and changing your actions so that you can be on time more it becomes 100x easier to actually do when you keep in mind how it can help others.
When you are late you are forcing others to sit around waiting for you!
It can also have a negative impact on your family members that are attending the same things or if you are late getting out the door and then your kids are late to school (or you are late to pick them up).
Remembering that this is an area that you can improve on that will not just help you but also help others is so important!
Remember- you can never get your time back so spend it wisely.
Korra-Shay
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