Better three hours too soon than a minute too late – William Shakespeare
Established digital transcription agencies are well aware about the importance of ensuring accurate and timely documentation solutions for their clients. Punctuality is a necessary trait for students, employees, entrepreneurs, executive managers, and people in senior management positions. Cultivating punctuality can make you stand out from the crowd.
Punctuality matters in this busy world and can make life much easier. Occasional lateness may be excusable, but regular lateness is not. If you are consistently late to the office, your employer may take it as a sign that you don’t take your work seriously. Students who are late to class on a regular basis and also tardy when it comes to submitting their assignments often end up with lower grades and face penalties.
According to management consultant Diana DeLonzor (in a Time Magazine article), being late is really is a much more complex problem than it seems. While tardiness is a difficult habit to break, the right approach can help.
Here are 8 simple tips that can make being late is a thing of the past:
- Analyze what’s making you late and deal with it: There are myriad reasons for chronic lateness. An article published by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reported that a San Francisco State University study investigating chronic lateness and its causes, found that people who were consistently late often shared certain common personality traits such as anxiety, greater procrastination tendencies, a penchant for thrill-seeking, or low levels of self-control. Some people are driven by perfectionism and want to have everything in place before they leave for work. DeLonzor recommends doing specific things to change your ways. For instance, creating an action statement can help you make mindful decisions about your actions and schedules. Ask yourself if you are being realistic about managing your time and what your priorities are. This will help you manage your time so that you are never late.
- Think about how being punctual can improve your life: Not being punctual can make your life more stressful, make others see you as unreliable, or lead you to constantly miss deadlines. Think about why you want to stop being late. Consider the positive effects of being punctual and how it will improve your quality of life.
- Wake up on time: One of the most common reasons for arriving late to work is oversleeping. Reset your body clock – sleep early and get up early. Getting sufficient good quality sleep will strengthen your immune system, improve brain functioning, enhance hormone balance, and boost your metabolism and energy levels. Strategies to improve sleep quality include getting more sunlight, avoiding electronic screens, maintaining a comfortable bedroom temperature, and avoiding drinking too much coffee. One trick to get up on time is to set your alarm a few minutes earlier.
- Plan and schedule: Set aside some time in the evening to plan and schedule things for the next day. Preparing in advance will ensure that you don’t waste any time in the morning. Tracking your time and activities will help you be more realistic with your plans. It may be better to overestimate the time you need to complete a task as you can’t predict what will happen. Students can manage time better by learning to balance coursework with their other activities and simplify tedious, time-consuming tasks.
- Don’t plan to be on time : Plan to be early: The saying goes, if you’re not early, you’re late. Wherever you’re going, build in an additional 10 minutes’ buffer to arrive on time. This will ensure that any unexpected delays will not cause delays. Set reminders and notifications to stay motivated and on track.
- Space out appointments : See that your appointments are not scheduled too close together. If you have only travel time between your meetings, an unexpected event or a prior meeting running late, will prevent you from getting to your next destination on time. The best way to prevent this is to add some buffer time or extra time between appointments. This will help you avoid tardiness as well as reduce stress and help you to prepare for the next meeting.
- Spend the wait time productively : Arriving early at an appointment or meeting can seem like a waste of time, especially to people who multitask to increase productivity. The solution is to take steps to ensure that you will spend your extra time fruitfully. Use the wait time to read, listen to a podcast, catch up on email or social media, etc. (www.inc.com).
- Be focused on showing respect for other people’s time : Remind yourself constantly that showing up late to anything is a sign of disrespect toward others. It’s rude to make others wait. And if you’re going to be late because of circumstances beyond your control, let the person you’re meeting know.
Outsourcing companies that provide academic and business transcription services focus on delivering accurate transcripts to meet stringent deadlines. Their services are a great option for students and business professionals to save time and money on tedious documentation tasks.
