Since my earliest years, I’ve always considered it to be essential to be on-time or early for every appointment, meeting and event I’ve been involved with. Situations do crop up that prevent that occasionally, but I’ve always felt being early was to my advantage in several ways:
- I don’t have the most effective sense of direction, so it’s easy for me to get lost. Going early gives me the chance to navigate any missteps in the journey, particularly to unfamiliar places. Although most times I ended up waiting on others, it was worth it for the times I got lost and had breathing room to backtrack or ask directions.
- Getting there early always gave me a few minutes to assess the situation, make a bathroom visit, straighten my clothes, relax and settle in before a meeting. That brought me to the table more calmly. In job interviews and client meetings, I usually had some time to look over an annual report or develop a rapport with the front desk people. As a matter of fact, I refused more than one job offer just because of the activity I noticed while waiting for my interview.
- Being there early builds a reputation for you. People see you as someone they can count on. Someone who values their time and is conscientious about their commitments. Someone who can be trusted with responsibilities because they’re committed to the people they’re meeting or the cause they’re involved in.
- Conversely, being late gets you a reputation as well. People see you at best over committed, at worst, uninterested. Someone who does not value their time and who is just “fitting them in” where it’s convenient.
At one point, I reversed this habit and spent a lot of my time showing up late for my commitments. Lessons learned:
- I thought showing up late to meetings at work might give the impression that I was staying busy doing important things. What actually happened is that everyone else involved (who also considered themselves busy and involved) simply saw that I couldn’t manage time or didn’t consider the meeting important. And when I paid attention, I realized that I thought the same thing about people who came in later than me.
- In my more introverted days I would show up late for social occasions to avoid small talk. I realized after a while how much of the conversations I was missing and how many opportunities to network I let fall. So by coming late, I just increased the difficulty of getting socially involved with new people.
Manage your time well enough to meet your commitments on time. Don’t fall for tricks like setting your watch forward – that just encourages a lack of self discipline and you don’t get the internal rewards of meeting your own commitments. Set your mind to it and do it.
It’s a skill that will set you apart – positively.
