What a way to start the day! The meeting was scheduled to start at 9. You rush into the conference room and the boss gives you a frown. The clock on the wall says 9:20. Sound familiar? As unfortunate as it is, you are not the only one called Late Lateef by their colleagues. A lot of people struggle with the same awkward problem – 'being on time.' Here are few of our tips to avoid such ineptness.

Identify the reason

If you are living in a busy and congested city like Dhaka, there could be countless reasons for being late. But before you jump at the chance of blaming it on the city, you should try to identify exactly why you are being late.

Some people are late because they forget to plan out their day and fail to remember the schedule. Some people are late because they forgot to account for the traffic and some people are late because they are just lazy and had no drive to be on time. Which one are you? The sooner you can figure out the cause, the sooner we can handle the issue.

Plan ahead

One of the easiest ways to be punctual is to simply plan ahead. Most of engagements are set up with plenty of time to prepare for them. Which means you can plan ahead. Set a reminder on your phone if you have trouble maintaining a schedule. Set up two (or more) alarms and customise the alarms with small notes such as- "leave for meeting" or "Check your papers" with at least 10 minutes in hand.

Know your limits

It doesn't matter if your engagement is of personal nature or of professional; being late is not appealing in either scenario. That being said, a lot of people say yes to meetings and engagements just because they can't say no. Know your own limits and understand that if you are unable to undertake an engagement, it is okay to say no rather than taking on more than you can handle.

If a physical meeting could be replaced with a virtual one, you should opt for the virtual one. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's that- physical meetings aren't as crucial as we thought them to be.

Account for your surroundings

Traffic condition of the big cities are nothing new. Take the traffic jam into your consideration when you are leaving for a meeting. The weather might also decide to test your patience and that one sock might decide to play hide and seek just when you are getting ready. Even worse, you can't decide what to wear. There will be a lot of distractions and variables that will try to hold you back. The trick is to become organised and prepared.

Create a habit

It might sound like a lot of work to plan ahead and maintain a schedule on a daily basis but understand that it will become a second nature if you start the practice. Whether you suffer from chronic lateness or you just happen to have bad time management skills, both can be improved with regular practice. Lateness can be ironed out like any other bad habit.

Remember, being late is not a personality trait. It's disrespectful to your host and it creates a very bad impression about yourself. It never hurts to be early but being late is inexcusable in many places. Besides, it can be avoided easily with very little preparation. The question is- are you willing to be on time?