[A collaboration post – all thoughts are my own.]

Do you want to be on time for all of your appointments and meetings?

I think when it comes to meetings, I always want to be on time because I don’t like to make people wait for me. You know, there are two basic categories of people when it comes to time management: those who are often early and those who, despite their best efforts, are frequently late. Occasionally being late won’t affect you, but consistently being late can seriously harm so many aspects of your life.

Time management is one of the most rewarding abilities that will benefit you in both your personal and professional life. If you aren’t using your time wisely, you will eventually descend into chaos. Time deserves to be treated with the utmost care because it is such an important component of existence. Our lives would only change for the better if we could learn to master the art of time management.

Learning the skill of time management could have a favorable effect, particularly in your working life, where most of us struggle to give each assignment the attention it deserves. On the other hand, if you are unable to manage your time well, you may encounter unfavorable outcomes like missed deadlines, an imbalance in your workload, burnout, and poor job quality.

Things you must know to be on time

Talking from experience, as a translator, I can simply manage my hours to the best effect with smart time management. When everything goes according to plan, translators are more likely to be creative and less prone to burnout at work. It makes sense to set aside some time to acquire time management strategies and practices in order to advance your career.

However, while some people seem to have enough time to complete what they want to, others are constantly switching between tasks. Simply said, this indicates that the person who accomplishes their goals makes better use of their time and develops excellent time management strategies. And since most people who are frequently late finding it difficult to just force themselves to be on time, here are six things you must know to be on time.

Regularly practice punctuality

Like any other ability, punctuality needs to be regularly practiced. You can’t expect to learn a new language in thirty minutes a week, and you can’t expect to improve your time management abilities significantly with little practice. You must put in the effort and make constructive progress toward your goals each day if you want to be on time.

How can you consistently demonstrate punctuality? It all comes down to focusing on minor details. Plan your route to or from work or school so that you can board a specific bus, train, or metro. Set a timer to help you remember when it’s time to go for an appointment. Alternately, look over your calendar at the end of the day to find any tricky or problematic scheduling situations and get acquainted with tomorrow’s schedule.

Being on time means being early

“On time” doesn’t mean showing up to a meeting or lecture at the last minute. If you want to be on time, you should try to get there with plenty of time to spare.

Ideally, you should plan to arrive five to fifteen minutes before the start of your appointment. Why? First, you want to give yourself enough time to settle down, unpack your bags, gather your thoughts, and get ready for whatever is about to happen. If you slip in at the last minute, you can’t do this easily.

The second reason is that you want to arrive at your appointment or meeting fully and entirely prepared to work, listen, contribute, or participate. You’re totally focused and prepared to get things done, so it’s a good method to make the most of the time you have available.

Last but not least, being on time ensures that no one—whether it is the meeting organizer, coworkers, clients, friends, or family—will be inconvenienced or distracted by your tardiness.

Avoid guessing the time

On any given day of the week, there is simply no room for guessing the time in the morning, the afternoon, or the evening. There is simply no reason you shouldn’t be aware of the time of day, and this is especially true in the modern world with cellphones, laptops, fitness trackers, and, of course, watches.

People must be aware of the time and take appropriate action at the appropriate moment in order to be punctual. So, if you have a 3 PM appointment and need to travel for at least a half hour, you should absolutely pay close attention to the clock as it gets closer to 2 PM.

Track how long tasks take

Even for routine tasks, like translating a document or a video in a day, sometimes I’m having trouble estimating how long it takes me to complete each one task. For instance, I may believe that subtitling a 60-minute long video only takes 1-2 days when in fact it takes it far longer—depending on the topic itself. Or getting ready in the mornings takes me an hour when it can be longer than that,

Make a list of everything you need to accomplish in the morning to get ready to leave for work or wherever it is that you go in the mornings. Then, for a week, keep track of the time it takes you to accomplish each of tasks. For example, how long does it take you to write an article for your blog? How long does it take you to get dressed? How long does it take you to reply to an email?

If you keep track of how long it takes you to do something, you might find that it actually takes you 50 minutes instead of the 30 you initially estimated. If this is the case, understand that in order to be more productive and get to your morning destination on time, you must begin waking 20 minutes earlier.

Use your to-do list as a weapon

Because you simply have too much to accomplish, you can have a tendency to be late. How are you supposed to be on time for anything when your schedule is so tight? Saying “no” when you don’t have time is always preferable than saying “yes” and then consistently arriving an hour late. Make sure everything on your to-do list is still important, then go back and mercilessly scratch it off. Make sure you only commit to things you know you can finish on time.

No multitasking

If you pride yourself on juggling too many tasks at once, here’s some news for you. Research suggests that only 2% of people can multitask effectively. For the remaining 98% of people, multitasking is actually wasting their time and lessening their overall productivity.

It’s preferable to concentrate solely on one item and be amazed by it than to divide your attention among three distinct things. Timeboxing them might help to increase its effectiveness. It is the process of giving each task a deadline, which improves the chances that it will be completed successfully.

Setting goals and ultimately taking the required efforts to guarantee that you arrive on time are made possible when you give the things you can control a high priority. Don’t you think that’s a far better strategy for being on time than just counting on luck?

How about you? Which of these six points speaks to you the most? Why? Leave a comment below!