Productivity Hack: 5 Mistakes That Always Make You Late
- You feel stressed
- It makes you look unorganised with your time
- It makes you look unprofessional or irresponsible
- It gives power to everyone else.
- It puts everyone’s schedule out of whack, including yours
You’re Terrible at Planning
If you’re seeing a re-occurring theme of always being late, then perhaps you’re not doing it right. The time you are allocating for certain things is taking longer than you planned. Try using Toggl. This is a great, free, online resource and phone app. It allows you to easily track how much time you are spending on certain projects. It’s not always what you think and gives you a more realistic report on how long things ACTUALLY take.
You Don’t Allow for Traffic
As mentioned above, you need to get good at planning your time. Google has a great function of being able to tell you the approximate time it will take to get from one destination to the other based on the time of day you travel. If you’re travelling on major city motorways this is well worth utilizing. Allow for speed limits, road works and time required to find a parking spot or a difficult location. Allowing yourself more time in traffic will also keep you safe and keep you safe.
You can’t say No.
If you’re like me, you’re strong organisational knowledge means that you are sort out to solve simple problems, such as how to correct something in a word document or where to find a particular file. And if you’re like me, you can’t bear to see something or someone go on being unorganized. So, you can’t say no. You do that one little thing at the risk of running late. It’s the last minute, out of the blue requests that are going to break your schedule.
Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to ask the question “Is this something you might be able to work out yourself?”
Successful people learn the art of saying No, and learn how to focus on their own highest priorities.
You Don’t Have a Time Contingency
If someone is asking you when a particular project can be completed or a product delivered, give yourself some breathing space. Add an extra day or hour onto your deadline time. In sales they say it is always better to under promise and over deliver rather than the other way around. (I’ve noticed this is Telstra’s tactic with service technicians). Similarly, if you’re giving someone else a deadline of when you need things from them, make it a day or an hour before you need (to allow for them being late). Again this will give you the contingency or breathing space you require.
You’re trying to be TOO Efficient.
It’s a cruel irony, but an eye opener for me when I stopped to consider it; efficient people have a tendency to be late. It’s because they think they can squeeze one more thing into that spare bit of time before they leave. Maybe you’re rescuing someone from their organisational drama or maybe you’ve got a busy day. Give yourself a deadline for when you need to finish your work, allowing time for shut down and pack up. So for me, it’s closing windows, saving files, preparing my desk for the next day, gathering my phone, lunch from the fridge, packing my bag etc. It’s important and be strict with your deadline.
Stop Running Late—Start Taking Control of Your Time
If you’re constantly feeling rushed, stressed, or behind schedule, it’s time to change the way you prioritise. The key to being on time isn’t about working harder—it’s about working smarter.
Utilise the most popular prioritisation tool used by time management experts everywhere.
It is widely recognised by time management experts everywhere as the most effective method for prioritising. This incredible tool is really simple to use. You’ll also have access to an amazing digital resource that will automate your action lists. You’ll be able to apply this tool day to day.
How well do you roll with the punches?
How it works:
- Answer 25 simple questions
- Generate results instantly
- Receive feedback to enhance your score
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