5 tips to help you stop being so late (or at least make you more honest about it) : Life Kit

If you're chronically late, one thing you can do to help yourself be more punctual is to plan ahead. Set yourself up for success by doing everything you can to ease that transition. So pick out your outfit, pack your bag, look up directions, find your good shoes and get your travel mug ready all before you need to leave.

Another tip is to work backward from when you need to be somewhere to give yourself time for the transition. How much travel time it'll take to get to the place from the moment you leave your home or place of work?

There's a lot of steps that people just don't consider. So if you need to fight traffic or buy a metro card, or pick up flowers or print something, leave time for that stuff.

Arriving somewhere early can make us super-anxious. Sitting with this anxiety is actually quite okay. For folks who are consistently late, try to shift your relationship with time so that the 10 or 15 minutes before the start of the meeting/dinner/appointment can be a time to gather your thoughts.

What could be the downside of sitting and collecting your thoughts for 10 minutes?

Try to tell yourself that you will in fact find something to do with your hands and that those 10 minutes that you're waiting aren't actually an entire hour, no matter how much it feels like it is. Think of it as a moment to catch your breath and give yourself a second to get settled.

Everyone is late sometimes. Some people even invent Olympic events for all the ways that they are able to be late.

Advice for folks who look at their watch and know the chances are good that they're going for gold: Let folks know as soon as you can. If you know you're going to be late to something, the very best thing you can do is communicate right away. It's not, thinking about it and then calling or texting 30 minutes later. It means right at that moment.