I was recently reading this fantastic article by Leah Ryder via Trello. How To Act Like A Morning Person (Even If You’re Not One) I find this fascinating because I am as far as you can be from a morning person. I’m a creature of the night. Some of my ex’s will attest to my blood-sucking tendencies.
I LOVE mornings. I HATE waking up… anyways, that’s not the subject of this blog post. No, but it sparked an idea for a blog on how to not be late! Before we get into it, this is an excellent article, and it deserves some love! Could you give it a read?
I’m not going to complicate this. This is a straightforward trick I’ve learned.
Add fifteen minutes to your trip, and be there fifteen minutes early. More than that, I want you to honestly believe that if you’re not fifteen minutes early, you’re late.
Your complaint might be that in your particular situation that if you’re that early, you’ll have nothing to do. Well, you have a phone, don’t you? Read an article, play a game, text someone you’ve meant to reach out and reconnect with, you have shit you can do! Stop pretending you silly goose!
Oh, I have an even better idea! Pick a book you want to read and see how much you can read before your start time!
What’s the real purpose here?
I have found that if you’re up to fifteen minutes late on most things, nothing bad happens. But you are stressed out of your butthole and here the thing, you don’t need that stress in life.
Not sure how long it takes to get somewhere? Open google maps (**** apple maps, Steve Job’s ghost gives terrible directions) see how long it takes to get to your destination and add fifteen minutes.
One last thing I have changed in my life that has created a HUGE difference.
The time to finish up a project is not the day of the project.
We’ve all been through school. You know that sick feeling you have in your stomach the day that your paper is due? I’m not saying you should get rid of that feeling. The fact of the matter is that never leave you. Just move that feeling up one day before the actual deadline (or if it’s a big project move it three days before it’s due).
An example of my failure would be that I really, really, REALLY wanted these red light fixtures for my stage set up, right? Well, it’s a day before the big show and guess what. We start on the lights, and we realize we’re missing a HUGE component, and we can not make them in time (what a twist)!
Now, if I would have set the deadline a week before the actual date of the show, I would have had realized we were missing something, and my dream would have been complete!
It’s not a big fix! You don’t have to change your life. Just make this tiny adjustment of making the deadline a little earlier and then TREAT IT LIKE IT MATTERS! We’re doing this to save us from the stress, my lovelies!
Let’s make it about music. When should your project be finished?
If it’s an album
One month before you release the album
- Doing this helps with Spotify algorithms and getting on any playlists. Seriously, Don’t plan on getting on any playlists if you’re not doing this. No self-respecting curator wants to be the last to hear about a release!
Summary
What time should I arrive
15 minutes before I’m supposed to be there
When should my project be finished?
For most things, you should set your deadline one week before it is absolutely due. Push, push, push to make this happen! You should not be trying to crank it out THE DAY that it is due! We’re better than that, my lovelies!
A fan of the blog! Well you can keep up with my day to day shit as well! Just follow me on the major platforms and the old person one (here’s looking at you LinkedIn).
Dean Nelson 