How to be On Time

Are you chronically late?  By 5 minutes...15 minutes...half an hour...???  

For years, I was late everywhere I went and I didn’t know how to get out from under it. Once I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), I was finally able to get a handle on it.  Wanna know how...?

First off, have I ever publicly mentioned the ADD thing?  For those who have been around my blog for any length of time, this may not surprise you at all.  I'm a bit of a spaz, right? 


Long story short, I was put on some light medication (which helped my focus, resulting in my GPA slowly climbing from a 1.8 to my first 4.0 EVER) and the school assigned me a councilor to help me re-learn proper study skills, overcome test anxiety and manage my time appropriately. She taught me how to assign each task to a specific block of time throughout the day so my priorities actually get accomplished.

(If you're wondering, I quit taking my meds when I got pregnant with Ryan and never looked back. I seem to be functioning fine without them; they’re not cheap and my life isn't nearly as stressful as it was when I was working in corporate America, so I manage without drugs.)

It was during this time that I was introduced to a book called, “You Mean I’m Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?”  One of the topics of this book for adults with ADD was focused on tardiness.  

The book suggested that people (with or without ADD) are late because they struggle with inaccurately judging the time it takes to do things and the time it takes to get somewhere.  As someone with ADD, I can tell you that I hate being early because I hate waiting around “wasting time.” There’s always so much to do!  Sitting in a doctor’s office five minutes longer than is absolutely necessary makes my hair stand on end.

This book went on to recommend that, in order to find your way out of consistently being tardy, you need to - are you ready for this??? - leave earlier.  Here’s the good news: the author had a sure-fire formula for how much earlier to leave.

1. If you think it will take you under 20 minutes to get somewhere, double the time.  For example, if you usually take 15 minutes to drive to church, leave 30 minutes early.  

2. If it takes you more than 20 minutes to get somewhere, add 15 minutes to your travel time.

People who are always late have a best-case-scenario of how they think things will play out when they go anywhere. We time things exactly, mistakenly assuming that the world will always run smoothly.


If you drove to work just once and had all green lights, your gas tank was full, you didn’t hit any traffic and you found the perfect parking space, and it took you 17 minutes door-to-door, those of us who are chronically late will tend to assume that we can leave 17 minutes before we need to arrive every single day. Then you’re caught calling your boss en route to let them know that “traffic is terrible” or “I need to stop for gas” and that you’ll be 5-10 minutes late.

And it’s SO much worse now that I factor my pokey little puppies kids into the situation!  If it takes 5 minutes to get the kids’ shoes on, fill water cups and load everyone into the car on the smoothest day, that’s what I assume it will always take. Until someone can’t find a shoe. Or they need to go to the bathroom. Or Jason refuses to climb into his carseat and hides in the back.  Or a million other things that interfere when kids play into the mix.

My goal is to double the time I think it will take to load the kids into the car AND plan to double the time it takes me to get there.  Because then it takes longer to get them out of the car and into wherever we're going. 

With the wonderment that is the iPhone, I no longer dread arriving to my destination early. Worst case scenario, I arrive 5-10 minutes early and can get caught up on texts or emails.  If you’re a reader, carry a book or magazine in your car.  Balance your checkbook. Clip coupons, meal plan or make your grocery list. The extra few minutes of quiet won’t kill you!

Anyone else have any tips on how to beat the tardiness cycle?