Are you tired of being chronically late? Do your friends not even bother to show up until at least 20 minutes after they told you to arrive, because they know they will still need to wait for you? Surely, this habit makes you feel despondent. Some people find such tardiness as an insult, while others will interpret it as a statement that the person who’s always late doesn’t care. The consequences of repeating lateness can be really terrible. If chronic tardiness has taken control over your life and has turned into a defining trait of your character, you have the risk to lose valuable job offers, friendships and great opportunities. There are seven ways to break that nasty and irritating to everyone habit of tiresome tardiness.
1. Get ready in advance
If you are disorganized, the problem is that you cannot get ready quickly. The way out is to do some prep work in advance. The less you have to do in the morning, the faster you would be able to get ready. You should lay out anything that you may need to take with you. Prepare clothing and gather all other personal things in a place where you can find them easily. If you continue doing everything in the last moment, you will always be late.
2. Allow for delays
Many people don’t allow for delays in route that usually makes them arrive late. If you have to drive, make sure you consider the drive time, the potential for traffic and the time to find a vacant parking place. Your drive time can be absolutely unpredictable, especially if you live in a big city. Nowadays there is a great variety of delays that can occur. Even nature can surprise you with horrible weather conditions and make you arrive at work late again.
3. Have a good sleep
People who are always late are often night owls. Constant late night affairs will cause you to have difficulties getting up next morning. To break the habit, get eight hours of sleep before a busy day. I think it’s better to save your late partying for Friday and Saturday nights. You should try to get enough sleep until you notice you no longer have trouble getting up. I hope good physical and emotional well-being will help you break the annoying habit of being chronically late.
4. Manage your time effectively
If you are always late, you should address this problem immediately. It is necessary to manage your time effectively. Effective time management means that you learn to gauge how long it will take you to get ready and how long it will take you to get to your destination. This can help you become more organized and get rid of the habit of being chronically late.
5. Reward yourself
When you reward yourself, you feel the power of motivation to keep up improving yourself in the future. The most challenging thing is to change yourself for better. It requires efforts to fight laziness and bad habits, which usually make you unhappy and unfortunate. Try not to be too hard on yourself, but stimulate yourself by small rewards for successful and persistent steps in struggle against the habit of being chronically late.
6. Consider how it makes you look
When you are chronically late, people around can find you irresponsible and inconsiderate. Try to put yourself on the place of those people, who are hopelessly waiting for you. It’s even possible to see dissatisfaction and anger in their eyes. You’d better rid yourself of this habit if you want to be treated with respect by your colleagues and friends. It will help you get the reputation of the man of the word.
7. Consider the consequences
If you really want to understand the core of the problem, you should think about the consequences. This terrible habit usually affects your relationships with others. It is easy to gain the reputation of a person who is always late. Moreover, it can influence on your children’s record at school for having numerous delays. No one likes to have common affairs with people who cannot appear in time. By all means, you should prevent yourself from these consequences. You can do it, if you begin to respect your time and the time of others.
Breaking the habit of being chronically late isn’t as difficult as you might think. All you have to do is to prepare in advance and learn to manage your time effectively in order not to be late for very important events and appointments. Try to develop the habit of being early and your life will change for better, I promise! What do you do to break the habit of being chronically late? Share your tips with us please
