What do you say to help the person that is chronically late? "Please try to focus on the appointment you need to keep without being distracted."
The distractions can be anything, and often the more creative a person is, the more distracted they become when it comes to being on time.
Take for instance Bob the builder-architect. Bob runs a very successful building company, however his real interest is in design and not the actual building process. Being the owner of a design-build company, his role is a mix of creative designer, manager, and sales guy.
Bob's life revolves around multiple things each day. Much of what he has to do is not about the part of his business he loves; designing things that work. Today, he is meeting with the inspector from the county to obtain permits, then going back to the site where his project is running behind. Bob finds himself running 20 minutes late to the inspector's office who is supposed to get his permits ready for the site. However, when he arrives, he discovers the inspector has taken another appointment, so Bob needs to reschedule an appointment 2 weeks later just for being 20 minutes late.
He returns to the job site to tell the crew that the permits will be delayed another 2 weeks. A shouting match ensues, Bob becomes hostile and withdrawn, and ends up not telling the crew chief it is his fault that the job is held up.
Bob makes up an excuse that when he arrived the inspector was not there. Feeling angry and despondent, Bob goes back to the office only to find it is easier to play solitaire on the computer than to face the task at hand of meeting his obligations of working on his not-so-good skill set of being late. Bob then blames everybody else for his lateness. His attitude today is the assault he took today from the chief on the building site. Instead of learning from the mistakes, he looks for ways to forget about what needs to be done and focuses on mindless time wasters.
This is just a short example of what many creative types are faced with when it comes to running a business that started with the fun tech/creative side, then ends up being management and running a business.
Bob's lateness can be attributed to his disinterest in all of the other mundane stuff that goes with the job.
Some examples we would suggest to Bob would be.
Meeting Appointments by Being On-Time
- Make a plan to work on being on-time.
- Ask what time do you need to leave to be on-time, not just what time is the appointment.
- Estimate the correct travel time to get there.
- Start 1 hour prep time before the appointment.
- Do not answer the phone or email during this prep time.
- Keep distractions to a minimum. (i.e. do not get lost in the file cabinet looking for papers unrelated to the project you are working on.)
- Allow mindless activities of at least 10 minutes every 3-4 hours. It could be taking a break to talk to someone, playing solitaire on the computer, or grabbing a cup of coffee. This will allow your brain to refocus.
- Keep to your schedule. If you write something in your planner/phone/calendar, stick to it by scheduling that activity.
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