11–20 of 21 posts
Now that I take public transportation (tramway, bus, train, city-bikes) I have a lot less control about the exact time of arrival (even though I use a pretty good app).
I need to adjust.
I live in Taipei now and that simply doesn't happen. My theory for the difference is in LA it's culturally acceptable to be late because people can blame the traffic for everything. Also, LA is a lot more transitive, with people moving in and out all the time.
Taipei is on an island, there's a lot less people who move in and out compared to LA so it's a lot more likely you'll bump into the same person multiple times. Also, everyone takes the metro, which is always on time, so you have to take responsibility for being late. (You can't just blame "traffic").
I personally arrive early to everything. If you’re not early, you’re late. Investors, board members, advisors, customers - they can all arrive late. You must not.
From time to time there will be spans of a few days where I'm always running late, and the thing that snaps me out of it is getting a good night's sleep.
I'm late under different circumstances. My first class in the morning, I'm usually always at least a few minutes late. It's a bad habit. Later classes, since I'm already on-campus, I find it really hard to be late, and am usually several minutes early. If it's a work meeting, I'm usually always early or right on-time. This goes for one-on-one meetings in any circumstance, or in general events where I'm expected to co…
I'd rather lose 45 minutes of extra sleep and take my sweet time getting out the door than any of the alternatives.
I used to be chronically late, until I realized that it takes me 10+ minutes to leave the house, and I always was hopelessly optimistic on time estimates. My wife calls it "Warot Time", and usually multiples my worst case estimate by 3. ;-) It's a good thing I'm pseudo-retired
I do think (at least for my wife) it's the estimate of time required to get to The Thing at a Specific Time that is inaccurate or overly optimistic, like all the time.
I used to be late a lot. Then one friend called me on it - "You don't value my time." So I made it a priority - but the learning curve was steeper than I thought. It's hard to be on time. You have to figure out how long it really takes to do things - not just fastest I ever did it. You can't be distracted, and you have to do things like say "no" or "i have to go". Actually having a car nav system helps me be on time…
A good habit is doomscroll your calendar once a day instead of $socials.