Have you changed from always being late to now being early?

Question

I would like advice from someone who spent most of their life always being late (for school, for work, appts, etc) and has made changes to stop this and now be on time.

Please don't tell me to set my clock ahead, go to bed early and wake up early. It doesn't matter what time I'm supposed to be somewhere or how much time I allow myself. I always end up in a frenzy to get out the door, speed all the way there, arriving 5 - 30 minutes late.

I'm 35 years old, college grad (biz degree), with a great job at a director level, but I can't seem to make sense of this so that I'll change, and yet I know this change would benefit me greatly.

Gotta run - I'm late for something! ;)

Answer 1

I did that. My family used to tell me a time to show up, 30 minutes earlier than others just so I would arrive on time!! Now I am almost always the first person to arrive places and end up sitting in the car waiting on others to arrive. I wish I had some magical answer for you but what did it for me was having children. My kids (4 and 1) have different things going on and they mostly last only 40-50 minutes and I realized that if I was 30 minutes late as usual, my child would be missing out. I also realized "lateness" can be learned and I didnt want my children to be like I used to be. WE still have a "frenzy to get out the door" but I no longer have to speed or rush the girls. ALso, I know you don t want this answer but my clocks are all 15 minutes fast, I go to bed earlier when we ave a lot scheduled the following day. Trying to get up earlier just seems to make me later somehow so we dont do that. Try telling yourself you need to be there a half hour earlier. Write it on your calendar as the eariler time, say the earlier time over and over again so that you really cannot remember the real time. I do that a lot for all activities and it seems to help. YOu have to work really hard at it but eventually you will learn how to believe yourself and the earlier time you are selling to yourself, if that makes sense. ALso, sometimes having too much going on makes you late to everything because you have to run from one place to another and even a slight delay can upset the whole schedule. FInd something important to you that makes you REALLY want to change!! Remind yourself over and over again how rude you are being to the others who arrive on time and remind yourself that your time is NOT more precious than other peoples time and you show more respect and appreciation to those around you when you honor their valuable time by being on time!!! Good luck!!

Answer 2

I was late for everything, school, work, social events, etc. for my entire life up until this year (I'm 29). It wasn't uncommon for me to show up to work 3 to 6 hours late (I never got fired for it for some crazy reason). Alarm clocks never worked for me because I'd just shut them off in my sleep. I used to have people call me repeatedly until I got out of bed but then I started shutting my phone off too. Nothing worked.
I'm now, on average, a half hour early for everything. The only change I made was that I got on antidepressants, an antipsychotic and antianxiety meds. The medication which helped me most, strangely enough, was the antipsychotic Abilify. Since I've been on it, I've been showing up early for everything. I'm not saying try medication but it was the only thing that worked for me.

Answer 3

Subconsciously you think what you have to do is more important than where you're going. You need more respect for the other people you force to wait for you.