How to stop being late for appointments

Are you the type of person that is always late or do you know someone that never seems to turn up for meetings on time? Not knowing how to be punctual for your appointments can be annoying to others, and can also affect your reputation.

Learning how to be punctual can be easy with a few simple tips, and it will change how others see you and how you feel about yourself in a good way.

Set your time earlier.

Set your watch, clock and the time on your mobile phone to be a few minutes earlier. Always plan your schedule accordingly to this time as it will give you a buffer of a few minutes. Do not however tell yourself that it is fine to be a few minutes late as you had your time set earlier. Always always treat the time you see on your watch as the actual time.

Plan the night before.

If you have an important meeting the next day where you need to be on time, you should prepare everything on the night before so that you do not waste valuable time the next morning. This means getting ready your clothes, things to pack in your bag and so on. Set your alarm clock to the time you have to wake up to be on time, and always buffer at least 15 minutes more for important events. Set another alarm besides your alarm clock, which is usually your mobile phone. Set each alarm to be 5 minutes apart. This is so that if you happen to snooze, the another alarm will wake you up. Do not snooze again when your second alarm goes off.

Get enough sleep

This point adds on to the previous one. If you need to be somewhere the next day on time, ensure you get a good night's sleep so that you can wake up on time the next day. Getting enough sleep will allow you to feel more rested, and you won't feel the need to snooze as much the next morning. It will also allow you to function more effectively, so you have an easier time performing your tasks.

Learn to cut time from less important activities

Ok, so you need to be somewhere at a certain time and somehow you still end up waking up late. See which activities you can cut time from without looking like a mess. Girls will need to learn how to apply their make-up and guys need to learn how to style their hair in a shorter time. Other activities which allow you to save time include having your breakfast on the go, taking a shorter bath, allowing your hair to dry naturally instead of blow-drying it and so on.

Well, sometimes you may have tried your best but something unexpected like a traffic jam crops up and causes you to run late. It is not the end of the world, so all you need to do is to extend a sincere apology to the other party who is waiting for you. Friends may be more forgiving, but your business associates may not be so tolerating. A sincere apology is usually accepted by most people, provided you do not turn up late on a regular basis and you inform them in advance if you know you will be late. 5 to 10 minutes of waiting time is generally accepted by all, and it is common courtesy to inform the other party in advance if you are going to be later than that.

I hope the above tips will be useful for you to be more punctual in the future. Good luck!