No matter whatever the situation may be, they are always late. You can scold and punish them or call them irresponsible, insane or tardy. They were late, they are late and they would be late.
If you are among one of them who are chronically late. Don’t search the internet to find the solutions for it. You would further feel depressed and low esteem. The reason is, almost all the articles on internet are written by those who themselves are early birds. They hate late comers and try to educate them with their so called fake strategies. They think, being late is actually a bad habit that demands strict actions and can be changed overtime.
The fact is, it is NOT a habit. You are hardwired either as early bird or late bird. It is a part of personality. Just like, you can not change your complexion, height and eye colors. Similarly you can not change this part of your personality.
if you are a late bird, people may advise you to
- Add 10-15 minutes to your clock..(This self deceiving technique may work for few days until your body clock is adjusted according to your wall clock )
- You should realize the benefit of being early and the loss of being late. (Those who are chronically late already realize it!!! This reiteration of the fact will only depress them instead of adding any benefit.)
- Add some slack time. (The internal body clock of the late comers always eats that slack time no problem how much slack you add)
So what is the solution… !!!!!!???????
Those who are chronically late are actually optimistic people. They can think and dream big. So instead of cursing themselves, they should embrace it as part of their personality and their potential energy. They are late because they optimistically think to cover the 50 minutes commute in 40-45 minutes.
But when they face the embarrassment of being late every other day. They convince themselves to leave home earlier at least by 15 minutes. But that techniques also does not work. Because whenever they check the clock, it is always 10-15 minutes ahead of their expectation. Here again, their optimistic behavior is responsible. They can not estimate the passage of time. So, If your commute would take 30 minutes, add 15 minutes and leave your home 45 minutes before the office timing. you should make sure that you would step out of your home at any cost at the specific time. Now the next question is how to achieve it? As you are optimistic, you will always under estimate the speed of time. The 30 minutes would seems like 15-20 minutes for you. The solution is, purchase a water proof wrist watch which would be with you all time ever during shower time. Allocate time to tasks for instance 10 minutes for taking bath, 15 minutes breakfast etc. and then adhere to that schedule strictly always keeping an eye on the watch.
It is not guaranteed solution. But it would work most of the time if you are really serious about your habit of being late and you comes under the category of optimistic people.
