The Importance of Being Punctual

Have you ever had a morning where you woke up late, or got stuck in traffic, or maybe you stayed talking to someone longer than you should have?  Has an incident, or your poor planning or someone else caused you to be late before?  There can be many reasons or setbacks in life that can cause us to be late.
However, being punctual, or on time has many benefits to both yourself, your coworkers, your classmates and more.  Showing up on time to your commitments is showing respect to others.  It also demonstrates that you are dependable, responsible, trustworthy and can overall manage your time.  Not being on time with things can also have a negative side.  It can keep others from being able to complete their tasks if they are waiting on you.  So how can you stay punctual or become better with staying on time?  One of the keys to this is having time management.  This includes scheduling your day and sticking to your schedule.  Focus on completing tasks when they need to be done by and allowing some flex time if things run over.
Another important tool is planning ahead.  If you know there could be outside factors that could cause you to be late, that you don’t have control over, try allowing more time.  This could be leaving 15 minutes early for class when you know you could have difficulty finding a parking space at school.  Another idea is to set your clocks 10 minutes ahead.  Although you know they may be fast, this can trick your mind to move quicker or leave wherever you need to be at.  Punctuality comes easy for some people and for others it can prove to be challenging.  Try some of these tips for improving your punctuality today!