I was thinking about it this morning just like every morning, as I hit the alarm for the 4th time; there is one thing about me that I really hate, and would love to change, but for some reason, never do. I hate being late, but it seems that I always am. Now, I wasn’t always late, in fact, I used to be known for being a little early. Perhaps I was a little overzealous, but I would always be around 10 minutes early for everything. I do recall that this was mostly during the time I was in college; but nevertheless, I was almost always a little early. But once I got out of college, being late kind of took over. Add a relationship to that, and it kind of spirals out of control from there. Sometimes, I am no more than a few minutes late, which really isn’t that big of a deal; but when you combine James and me together, that few minutes can turn into a long time.
I know that this really bugs people and hell, it even bugs me, but for some reason, I can’t seem to get my ass in gear enough to be early or on time for anything. Does anyone else out there have a similar problem?
Do you know what makes you be late to everything? Is there a deeper meaning behind being late (such as, it isn’t that important to you, so you just show up whenever)? I am not saying that there is, but I am curious to know why I can’t seem to shake this nasty habit! I know that being late is something that you can work on, and even successfully change, if you are committed to the effort; but for one reason or another, I am pretty much late for everything.
I guess one of my reasons for posting this, is because I want to apologize to everyone that I have been late when meeting up in the past. I am going to try my best to stop doing this annoying ass habit, and try and actually meet up with people on time in the future. James, you better read this, honey, because it affects you as well. The other reason is to make myself feel accountable, and perhaps let this serve as a proclamation of my newfound attempts at preventing lateness. Perhaps I will discover that it is actually the product of something else, and that I need to work harder, or whatever. Either way, I want to have it out there for people to see. And finally, I want to hear from you: if anyone has any tips to make being on time easier, I am all ears; I need all the help I can get. Some people are excellent at being on time, and I would love to know the secret.
Also, I added a new item to the column on the right; an open thread list. I put some of the more “hot topics” here at duanemoody.com over there, and encourage all of you to keep the conversations going, I am very interested and involved. Also, if you feel like you “missed it”, don’t, it is like double dutch, you just have to figure out how to get in there, and you can jump rope with the rest of us. Let me know if you would like to see anything added to that list.
Somehow I’m never really late for anything. If I’m late, its likely not to show up at all (and once I commit to something I’ll definitely be there…
I actually hate it when people are late, but that’s what mobile phones are for! LOL
Yes, I’m late for everything. And I hate myself for it. You’d think by now I’d have learned that it takes longer than 5 minutes to shower, shave and get dressed, and that chances are the Atlanta traffic is going to suck and I’m not going to make it to my appointment on time. I always think I can beat the clock.
Luckily my job at the moment is flexible and it doesn’t matter if I am late, but that’s about to change, and I’ll have to change with it.
So maybe in the future when I go to see a movie it’ll make more sense because I haven’t missed the first ten minutes of it.
I’ve wondered why some people are late and some aren’t. I am NEVER late. Ever. If fact, I’m ALWAYS early, so much so, it annoys some people. My brother, on the other hand, is always late. When we’re having dinner at our parents’ my Mom will tell him 5:00 when she really planned on 6:00 all along.
I go through my phases. Sometimes I’m super early, sometimes I’m a little late but right now I’m in my super on time phase. And by super on time I mean if I say I’m gonna meet you at 12:18 I will be there at 12:18. It really freaks people out. : )
I hate that feeling, whenn you wake up with just enough time to do NOTHING. You just lie there thinking, “I can’t do anything!” And you stare at your alarm clock, hoping it’ll sprout little legs and dance around and say, “Just kidding! I’m just a stupid clock, playing stupid clock games!”
On the bright side, at least you weren’t 5 hours late.
I am almost always at least 5 minutes late for work (15 today!) so I do know what you mean. It’s like when the pressure is on to be somewhere you decide that you just have to fit in ONE more important thing before leaving. Well, at least that’s what happens to me, that or miscalculate how long something is going to take (like a shower) and refrain from doing it riiight up the the moment you have to.
Make any sense?
Its my fault, I made you go to a hockey game and drink 5 to 6 drinks. Maybe you should stay in tonight so you can get a jump start on the next day.
You know instead of going out and drinking tonight. I am just saying
Now, I have known Duane since highschool, and can say that he was not always on time back then (mostly due to the fact that his car was a piece of shit and took forever to start), but he has gotten a lot worse. Now I love ya buddy, but i now add a good 30 minutes to any scheduled meeting time with you cause I hate to wait. And I have to say, I know you do not do it on purpose, but every time you do it I get furious. But i get furious with anyone who is late. I feel like they do not value my time, and find it to be more than rude. I have learned to live with it, cause I love ya, but that still does not mean that every time you are late i don’t let a little piece of me hope you get a flat tire on the way home.
Also, i can vouch for Steve, cause the boy arrived a half an hour early to Duane’s surprise party.
Amber’s on the Dane Train!!! WOO HOO!
James, honey, I didn’t have 5-6 drinks, only 2 (24oz beers). LOL. And that is not why I was late… but we were even late to the game, remember? we both need to get better, baby. Love you back!
Josh… different Steve… oooohhhh… *face grimace*
DAMN. Then you have two friends named steve who are early.
I’m anywhere between ten minutes early to exactly on time. If I’m even five minutes late, I stress over it. This drove me to distraction because I was in a 6 year relationship who was always 30-60 minutes late. He had no concept of time. For example, he’d say, “I should be home by 7.” Then I would walk it through for him and show him that this was impossible. “It’s 5 o’clock. You’ll be at the gym at 5:30. By the time you change and stretch it’ll be 5:45. You’ll work out until 7. By the time you shower and get home, it’ll be 8.” Shit. This is long, maybe i’ll blog about it.
GREAT POST D… as for me I’m always 10 minutes early and due to my OCD I can not handle being late, having said that I’m dating the “Late King”. He is always late, always running late or always making us late. I honestly think you are either a early person or a late person. It just happens… as for any hints on how to get over your alarm clock troubles I will give you my lil’ secret. I have to set my alarm clock to the RADIO and a Christian Music station. That cured me instantly.
I am always early for things, I can’t stand being late for anything. Virgo. I get a little frustrated with people who are constantly late. My ex and my friend Stephen are both always late, anywhere up to hours late, and it drives me kinda nuts.
My theory on people who are constantly late is that they are really poor at reasoning out how long something is realistically going to take. My ex (for example) will do the “it’ll take me 10 minutes to get ready, then I’ll jump in a cab and it’ll only take me another 10 minutes to get there” and of course it’ll take him half an hour to get ready, 10 minutes to find a cab, even at top speed the trip will take another 20 minutes… Whereas I’m the sort of person that’ll give myslef an hour and half to get there, and then walking around the block for 20 minutes to kill time.
I’m currently struggling with this issue. I have my own business and a wife and three kids under 4 yrs old. That’s not an excuse, it’s just escalated the problem with tardiness.
I had a customer point out that because of my artist tendencies (being very creative in my work), I can get easily distracted and generaly don’t have a good sense of timing of things. She recommended a time management seminar, which I’ve yet to attend.
I’ve also had the idea (it’s just an idea — I don’t know if it would really work) that if I could meet regularly with a friend in the mornings over coffee or something, that we could in a sense hold each other accountable to get our days started at a reasonable time. Actualy, now that I think about it, I tried that. I had such a problem getting there on time, that, eventually, neither of us would leave our house until I called him and told him I was leaving for the coffee house. Sometimes that would only give us 15 minutes to meet, so we often would cancle. Oh well, so much for that idea.
I think my next step is to attend a time management seminar so that I can either prove it successful or not. Then I’ll be looking for the next solution.
Back on that topic of creativity– I’ve noticed that my mind is always thinking about things and processing thoughts (almost like it has a mind of it’s own
). So, when I need to be doing something else I find my self doing what my mind is currently being productive with. Then when it’s time to leave, my mind doesn’t seem to cooperate with the task of getting things in order for me to leave and have everything I need. ORDER! That’s it! Things are so out of order that for me to think of my “I’m going to work”-checklist, it’s like trying to find that phone message I jotted down on the back of last month’s phone bill envelope on my desk under the pile of this months mail and stuff.
Forgive me for rambleing, but I thought maybe someone out there could relate and that I could relate to your ‘late’ issue.