Why I’m Actually Late All the Time

“As soon as you’re collecting real data, that’s when you can start making real decisions.”

Before committing to a goal of being On Time this year, I did a little research on the strategies for developing this skill. A lot of the tips were what I expected: “add travel time to your calendar for all appointments.” “Set your clocks a few minutes fast so you’ll always be on time.” “Set an alarm and then set a ‘for real this time’ alarm.” I’ve tried ’em all. They don’t work for me.

The problem is, I know how to “outsmart” every one of these to buy myself a few more minutes to do whatever it is I think is so important that I’m willing to be late. I set my clocks a few minutes fast and then become extremely proficient at doing the math in my head to know what time it REALLY is. I see the calendar reminder for travel time and instantly think “well, it only takes 10 minutes to get there. I’ve got 20 more!” It’s like I am trying to earn a master’s degree in being late to things.

So a Reddit thread caught me off guard with a new approach. The gist was: “if you’re late all the time, it’s because you have a distorted view about how long things take. All of those buffers and tricks will actually make this worse, because they perpetuate incorrect knowledge of time.” That resonated with me.

Their advice for getting to work on time (as an example) was this: stand in the dead center of your house. Start your stopwatch. Then go find your keys, warm up your car, pour your coffee, drive to work, park, get in your office, sit down at your desk. THEN hit stop. From now on, set your alarm for exactly the time you need to do that. Make the alarm loud and annoying and don’t even think about giving it buffer time. When the alarm goes off, you leave the house. Hope you’re wearing pants.

I realized that I have made a lot of assumptions about how long things take. And I’m guessing they’re generally not right. So I started collecting the data of how long many of my daily tasks actually take compared to what I thought they did. Here are a few:

• Showered, dressed, hair & makeup done: 29:30, on a guess of 20 min.
• Drive to work, from garage to being in office: 13:20, on a guess of 10 min.

It’s pretty quick to see how I’m starting my day not on time, most of the time. Add to this a coffee shop run or a kid’s forgotten lunch, and I don’t have a fighting chance!

It’s early days of this goal, so collecting data seems like the most important first step. I’m continuing to log real times against my assumptions, and finding that most of the time, I’ve been wrong. What happens when I start having the right data?