“On time is late, and 15 minutes early is on time.” -My high school lacrosse coach
Are you always late? Do you consistently finish tasks after a deadline you committed to?
Chances are you’ve justified these occurrences with one of the following excuses:
- “The bus, train, subway, Uber was late.”
- “Traffic was worse than I expected.”
- “I didn’t think it would take this long.”
- “Something else got rescheduled.”
- … something else beyond your control
We’ve all been late. Sometimes work just gets away from you. But some people are chronically late. They regularly show up just a little after the meeting starts. They regularly turn in a project a few hours or days after the deadline. And they always have a reason why it happened and they couldn’t do anything about it.
Don’t buy into this bullshit. Punctuality is a choice.
Choose to learn how to be on time. Choose to finish what you commit to when you commit to it. Do what you need to do to make sure it happens.
For the past four years I’ve taught a course on Digital Marketing in San Francisco. I live in San Jose, about 50 miles south. Despite this, I’ve never been late to a course I’ve taught. Why? I’ve learned a key skill.
The skill isn’t a secret, and I’m not the only one with this skill. Many other principled professionals out there are consistently on time for every appointment.
In high school I was regularly late to appointments. That Is until my high school lacrosse coach taught me the meaning of being “on time”.
Practice started at 3:30pm. At the first practice of the season, several people showed up right at 3:30. Coach was ready to start drills, but these guys still needed to get their pads on and their shoes laced up. (That doesn’t sound like it would take time, but even 5 minutes is important.)
Coach told us, “on time is late, and early is on time.” He told us about Lombardi time, named after the famous coach Vince Lombardi, and that our standard for the season was Lombardi time. He made sure the lesson stuck by pairing it with wind sprints.
What’s the key to punctuality? Plan to show up early, and stick to your plan.
Once my coach told us about Lombardi time, the team planned to be on the field, suited up and ready to practice by 3:15. We adjusted our schedule to make sure that happened.
Occasionally someone would be ready a little past 3:15 (because of traffic or other unforeseen challenges), but that was OK, because practice didn’t start until 3:30. By building in time to account for the uncontrollable, the team learned how to be on time.
What’s the key to finishing on time?
After high school as I started my career I would commit to deadlines without considering what it would take to actually get the work done in an effort to make my colleagues happy. This inevitably led to me missing the deadline I committed to.
Luckily I met a coworker who taught me the keys to finishing work on time. There are three.
Consider how long it will take to do the work, then add time for unforeseen circumstances
When you consider a task or project, carefully visualize how long it will take to complete the project. Consider all the steps involved. Think about what you will need from others, and coordinate with them. Identify any aspects that you don’t feel comfortable estimating and seek advice from someone who’s done that task before.
Write down how long it will take to do each step and add it up. Then take a look at your calendar, and estimate how much time you’re able to spend on each day to accomplish the project. Just because you’re working for 8 hours a day 5 days a week doesn’t mean you have 40 hours a week for this project. What else are you doing? Do you or anyone else have vacation time you need to consider? What about other projects?
After you’ve identified how long the project will take and when you can spend that time, then consider adding some time for unforeseen circumstances.
When I first learned this strategy from a coworker (thanks Amanda), she suggested I double the amount of time it would take. I’ve learned that may be overkill. Shoot to add between 50% to 100%. Use your best judgement, but don’t commit to the exact date you calculated without adding a little bit of time.
Example: your boss asks you to create a presentation on competitors for a meeting that occurs in 6 weeks. You think through the presentation, what you’ll need, and who else you’ll need to work with, and you decide it will take about 30 hours of work to complete.
Then you look at the calendar. You see you’ve got two other projects going on right now for the next month. You figure out you can contribute about 2 hours a day to this project. There’s also a Monday off coming up. So the project will take you 15 days (30 hours divided by 2 hours per day), and about four weeks to deliver (5 days a week). You decide to add three days to the deadline and tell your boss you’ll have the presentation ready in four weeks. (Your estimate includes drafts and review meetings so your boss will be able to see your ideas before then.)
Block out/reserve time on your calendar to do the work.
Once you’ve made a commitment, block out time on your calendar to do the work. Literally make an appointment with yourself for the days and times you’ll be working on the project. This prevents other meetings from taking all your time in a day where you need time for projects. It also prevents you from forgetting that you committed to work on the project, and spending your time focused on something else that grabs your attention.
Don’t commit to something you can’t deliver. Learn to say no.
This was a huge challenge for me. Others would ask me to deliver something by a certain time, and I would say “yes” without considering how I would actually meet the deadline, thinking I would figure out. More often than not I didn’t figure it out, and I let my colleague down by not delivering on time.
I learned that the discomfort of being honest and saying “no” when I couldn’t deliver was much easier (and more principled) than committing to something and then not following through.
Deadlines should be a negotiation. Sometimes you’ll get a request, consider the deadline, and realize you can deliver with no problem. Other times you’ll be pressured to finish something faster than you’ll able to. You have to stand up for yourself. Even under intense pressure, it’s your responsibility to commit only if you’re reasonably sure you can deliver. This is not easy, and it takes practice. Once you master this skill, however, you will gain the respect of your colleagues, even those who pressured you to deliver.
Choose to be punctual and reliable
Professionals are built on strong relationships , and relationships are built on trust and history, also known as reputation. Build a strong reputation for being on time and turning things in when you committed to.
What strategies do you have to show up on time and complete your projects on time? Share them in the comments and help out your fellow professionals.