Sorry I' m Late, I will be there soon...
You need to be at an appointment at 11.00 AM, and it's 30 min drive from your home. The time is 10.30 AM, and you are still struggling to match your clothes. You are slightly hungry and want to grab a snack too.
Finally, you manage to get out of your house- sweating, stressed out, and you call them to inform them you will be late.
If you can relate to this, I have something which may help you. Surprisingly, I have been in such situations countless times. I always wished that I could be at my appointment /party/meeting before time, sitting composed. But I was never able to fix the problem. So whenever I had to step out of home, it involved a lot of strain and anxiety.
And then, one fine day, I discussed this issue with one of my friends in the hope to figure out a way, and the solution undoubtedly changed my life. And, of course, the credit for this post goes to my dear friend.
Before we jump to the solution, we need to do some groundwork.
Please find out the approximate time by which we get late for every event, say 15 mins, 20 mins or 30 mins.
1. The first thing to do is to use your subconscious mind.
Set all the clocks you have at home backwards by some odd minutes, which is challenging to calculate quickly. Avoid 5, 10, 15 etc., numbers easy to calculate.
So if you usually get late by 20 mins try a number for it, like 21/22/23 etc. Keeping easy number differences will help you calculate time effortlessly, which we don’t want. If your mind starts diverting and starts calculating actual time, the tricky number difference will help you deviate from it and focus on getting ready fast.
2. Now comes the analysis part. You have to start roughly analyzing how much time you need to do things when you want to get ready. Example like shower, dressing up, eating etc.
3. Now, you are equipped with this information, but planning always comes to your rescue. Get into the habit of planning a day before your workplace/event/anything you want to do at a specific time.
Planning is necessary for major as well as minor things.
Select your clothes, shoes, accessories, bag and get them ready (iron your clothes, polish your shoes, prep your food, keep your snack ready). If you need to carry anything else with you while leaving, you need to keep it ready.
4. Now’s the time to put our plan to the test. For your appointment at 9.00 am, start backtracking and planning.
Driving to the destination including parking time: 30 mins
Having Breakfast: 15 mins
Getting ready: 15 mins
Shower time: 15 mins
Cooking breakfast: 30 mins
Getting up and freshening up: 30 mins
And to complete all this, you need to set your alarm for 6.45 AM!
Any minute later than this time will get you late for your appointment, so there is no snooze time.
And don’t forget that we are planning all this with the modified time in the clocks. Now you ask me why we can’t use the real-time as we planned everything?
Everything will go well as per the plan, but keeping a buffer will help tackle things if something does not go.
If we forget to carry something while leaving home, we can come back and take it. If something unexpected happens, we still have time to handle the situation.
5. And now you are well equipped with buffer time, a rough estimation of your activities, planning and preparation.
So for your 9.00 am time, you will be at the destination at 8.45 am. With ample time to walk slowly, sit down, read something and wait for your turn. Yes, you finally achieved it!
However deep-rooted your habit is, if we work towards changing it, it will inevitably change. I was able to overcome this old habit of 20+ years. There was a time when I accepted that this would be the way, and I might not be able to turn it around.
But the good thing was that I didn’t stop finding solutions.
Finally, you manage to get out of your house- sweating, stressed out, and you call them to inform them you will be late.
If you can relate to this, I have something which may help you. Surprisingly, I have been in such situations countless times. I always wished that I could be at my appointment /party/meeting before time, sitting composed. But I was never able to fix the problem. So whenever I had to step out of home, it involved a lot of strain and anxiety.
And then, one fine day, I discussed this issue with one of my friends in the hope to figure out a way, and the solution undoubtedly changed my life. And, of course, the credit for this post goes to my dear friend.
Before we jump to the solution, we need to do some groundwork.
Please find out the approximate time by which we get late for every event, say 15 mins, 20 mins or 30 mins.
1. The first thing to do is to use your subconscious mind.
Set all the clocks you have at home backwards by some odd minutes, which is challenging to calculate quickly. Avoid 5, 10, 15 etc., numbers easy to calculate.
So if you usually get late by 20 mins try a number for it, like 21/22/23 etc. Keeping easy number differences will help you calculate time effortlessly, which we don’t want. If your mind starts diverting and starts calculating actual time, the tricky number difference will help you deviate from it and focus on getting ready fast.
2. Now comes the analysis part. You have to start roughly analyzing how much time you need to do things when you want to get ready. Example like shower, dressing up, eating etc.
3. Now, you are equipped with this information, but planning always comes to your rescue. Get into the habit of planning a day before your workplace/event/anything you want to do at a specific time.
Planning is necessary for major as well as minor things.
Select your clothes, shoes, accessories, bag and get them ready (iron your clothes, polish your shoes, prep your food, keep your snack ready). If you need to carry anything else with you while leaving, you need to keep it ready.
4. Now’s the time to put our plan to the test. For your appointment at 9.00 am, start backtracking and planning.
Driving to the destination including parking time: 30 mins
Having Breakfast: 15 mins
Getting ready: 15 mins
Shower time: 15 mins
Cooking breakfast: 30 mins
Getting up and freshening up: 30 mins
And to complete all this, you need to set your alarm for 6.45 AM!
Any minute later than this time will get you late for your appointment, so there is no snooze time.
And don’t forget that we are planning all this with the modified time in the clocks. Now you ask me why we can’t use the real-time as we planned everything?
Everything will go well as per the plan, but keeping a buffer will help tackle things if something does not go.
If we forget to carry something while leaving home, we can come back and take it. If something unexpected happens, we still have time to handle the situation.
5. And now you are well equipped with buffer time, a rough estimation of your activities, planning and preparation.
So for your 9.00 am time, you will be at the destination at 8.45 am. With ample time to walk slowly, sit down, read something and wait for your turn. Yes, you finally achieved it!
However deep-rooted your habit is, if we work towards changing it, it will inevitably change. I was able to overcome this old habit of 20+ years. There was a time when I accepted that this would be the way, and I might not be able to turn it around.
But the good thing was that I didn’t stop finding solutions.
If I could change this, even you would be able to. Being patient and doing hard work transforms your desire into reality! Have you come across any such habit of yours which you were able to change? What steps did you follow?
I have never watched a movie in theaters from starting as we always reach late. I always reach office meetings on sharp time and baffle whats going on. Hopefully when pandemic is over I can reach everything on time
ReplyDeletevery useful points
ReplyDeletenice writing
ReplyDelete