8 Tips to Always Being On Time
8 Tips to Always Being On Time
I’d like to congratulate my colleague, Jacquie Ross of Cast Away the Clutter. In her recent newsletter she announced that she is officially a Life Coach and now working on her Parent/Youth/Family Coach training.
Jacquie has 8 tips for always being on time.
1. Add 10-15 minutes more to the time you think you need to get ready.
2. Get up earlier than usual for an important appointment or event.
3. For early morning departures, make sure you have enough gas in your car the night before.
4. Leave 10-15 minutes earlier than you need to so that you’re not stressed if you end up in traffic.
5. Pick out your outfit the night before, to avoid the “I’ve got nothing to wear” blues.
6. If you have family members who are always running behind, set the clocks in the house 5-10 minutes fast.
7. Plan breakfast and set the breakfast table the night before.
8. Avoid squeezing in “one more thing” as you’re leaving the house.
Jacquie has begun accepting new clients into her life and family coaching practice. If you are interested in life coaching with Jacquie, contact her to schedule a free no-obligation introductory life coaching session.
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Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Hi Janet,
Thanks so much for sharing my tips. I appreciate it and I’m glad you liked them! Looking forward to seeing you at the Mid Atlantic conference for professional organizers this October!
Jacquie
Jacquie, congratulations on your life coaching training. You are always working on something new. I look forward to seeing you at MARCPO in October. We have a great line up of speakers and expo vendors. It will be a great day.
Most of these are pretty much standard operating procedure for me. I would much rather be early to an appointment and have a few minutes to delete photos/emails, read, or even just breathe and relax than be stressed out because I am running late. Recently I’ve noticed myself trying to squeeze in that one last thing, and it has knocked me off my game a few times. This is a great reminder to put that task aside and tackle in when I have plenty of time.
Seana, I’m the same as you. I always have emails to read or a kindle book. I’d rather be early rather than late.
I do find that I do almost all these tips and they do work to help me stay in control of all the tasks that I need to do in my business and personal lives. I even like to plan the entire week’s clothing and placing them in order by day so that I don’t have to think about putting together outfits for a whole week. Good luck Jacquie on your new Life Coach journey.
Sabrina, you are more organized than I am. I have a work uniform, so that is what I wear most days. But when I’m done with work I change into whatever I feel like wearing.
These are excellent strategies. The one that can get me is that last one, “do one more thing.” My workaround that usually works is to set a timer. So if I need to stop what I’m doing to get ready to head to my client’s, the timer will beep when I have to wrap up and finish what I’m doing. Every once in a while, though, I can’t help myself. I’ll ignore the timer or even reset it for another 5 or 10 minutes. I try NOT to do that, but sometimes it’s hard to stop without finishing the thought or thing I was doing.
I try not to do one more thing, because if I do I always lose track of time and end up being late. I did this one morning last week and was late for a client appointment. Lucky she lives close so I was only a few minutes late.
There was a time when I planned my outfits a week at a time, and I often made my lunch the night before as well. Life’s much simpler now that I work from home!
I agree. I bet doing that prep work early helped you have less day to day stress.
These are wonderful tips! I try to follow most of them, although the only reason I’m late infrequently is because of the squeezing in “one more thing” action.
Nancy, several people said the same thing. That must be an issue with many. Me too!
Oh yeah, I’d much rather be too early than too late. Especially to the airport!
I agree. I’d rather be super early to the airport!