Are you anally early or lackadaisically late?

Time…we all have the same amount each day.
24 hours
1440 minutes
86400 seconds
How we use it is unique to our personality and says a lot about ones’ character and priorities.
Once it’s gone, we can’t get it back.
That’s why we should value each second, each minute, each hour and not take time for granted or waste our own…or someone else’s.

Promptitude is not only a duty, but is also a part of good manners; it is favorable to fortune, reputation, influence, and usefulness; a little attention and energy will form the habit, so as to make it easy and delightful. ~~ Simmons, Charles

My daughters’ father and I were always called anally early for church or other events. Ironically, our anally early meant we were where we were supposed to be about 15-30 minutes beforehand. That’s not anally early in my opinion….that’d be “on time”. Meanwhile, the majority of people show up late or obnoxiously lackadaisically late and that seemed to be the norm and “acceptable”.

What happened to being on time or early to commitments?

Personally, I’d prefer being early-giving myself enough time for traffic, any mishaps that may happen en route and ensuring I get to where I’m supposed to be when I’m supposed to be there. Other people’s time is just as important as my own and I don’t want to waste someone else’s time because I wasn’t punctual.

I’m late. I’m late. For a very important date. No time to say “Hello.” Goodbye. I’m late, I’m late, I’m late. ~~ White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland

If a white rabbit can figure out he doesn’t have time to say hello because he’s late, why can’t people in the real world comprehend the importance of being on time?

Punctuality is the stern virtue of men of business, and the graceful courtesy of princes. ~~ Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

In business, I have always been punctual in responding to emails, getting orders shipped the same day or the day after they were placed. The business succeeded because of this. I’ve since then sold that particular business and am moving on to new projects; however, the way I deal with clients will always remain the same. They will always have my timely response and attention. That’s simply how it should be.

If I have made an appointment with you, I owe you punctuality, I have no right to throw away your time, if I do my own. ~~ Richard Cecil

I recently went out of town for a few days while the rest of family was away too. That meant hiring a pet sitter for my daughter’s dog. She came highly recommended, so I hired her. I had left a note with the security guards to let her through the gate in the event that I couldn’t answer my phone when she tried to gain access. The first day, I’m assuming went smoothly as I didn’t get any calls. The second day, she phoned me from the gate access board and was 45 minutes late showing up from our scheduled times she was to be at my place for the dog. The third day, she was 20 minutes late on one of the show up times. I don’t know about the other times she was to be there because she went through the security guard and not phone system. To say I was annoyed would be an understatement, but I was 1300 miles from home so nothing I could do about it at the time.

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Upon returning home, I was to meet the pet sitter to pay her and get my key returned to me. We arranged to meet “before 8 p.m.” That evening, I phoned her at 7:30 to ensure she was going to be here before 8 because I still had to go to my daughter’s dad’s house to let out the 3 dogs there and take care of them. The pet sitter had excuses-“oh, I’m at another job right now, then I have to go to the store, then I’ll be there”.
I explained that that wasn’t an option, she could go to store after she came here, as I needed to leave.
She then said, she’d be here in 20 minutes.
8 p.m. came and went, and no pet sitter.
8:20 p.m came and went, still no pet sitter.
I phoned again, she stated she did in fact go to store and got hung up there.
I told her she was totally rude, inconsiderate, unprofessional and to give me her address so I’d mail check and I’d make it easy and put a stamped addressed envelope in there for her to put my house key in to mail back. She insisted that we set up another time for her to come by. NO!, I do not waste my time on people who waste mine! Once is enough. I will not sit and waste my time twice…especially to pay someone! If she’s not professional enough to be on time to collect her money then that’s not something I’m going to concern myself with. She kept insisting that she hadn’t done anything wrong. I explained again how unprofessional she is being late and then having excuses. Her only response was “if that’s how you feel”. Wow! It’s not just how I feel, but how it should be. If you’re supposed to be somewhere at a certain time…be there at or before that time! In business, that’s just common sense-or one would think it would be. Perhaps this is why she deals with dogs and cats because they can’t speak up and say the person was late or possibly never even showed up?! Who knows. All I know is she lost a potential repeat customer in me and I advised the people who referred her to me about her unprofessional-ism too.

Time should be respected and appreciated-your own as well as others’.