The Art of never being late!

"Some people resemble a cheap watch. They are not dependable"

It was end of the year 2014 we attended “Strategic Time Management” Training. We got so influenced by the content that they were common ideas yet unrealized at a whole. And I’m so blissful to utilize in this 2015 year.

“The art of never being late” is the one topic covered in that training. I’ll here go through the material in the same way.

For now imagine two individuals: Ahmed and Zain.

Ahmed:

Ahmed has got amazing time management skills. He’s so punctual, he arrives office at time and not only in office but also in official meetings or any social event, he is never late.

Whatever time he says to his colleagues at office, they are perfectly sure he will be at the exact time. If he says I’ll be there in meeting at 2:30 pm, not a minute more or less, it’s 2:30 pm. For social events like a marriage ceremonies, no comparable. If the time is for 10:00 pm, he will be there no matter how many people show up. And at his home he’s too same as other important things because that’s how Ahmed is: Punctual!

Ahmed too lives in real world of uncertainties, traffic jams and emergencies. And everyone knows that he will inform and renegotiate the appointment in advance of an extraordinary situation.

Zain:

Zain is exactly the opposite side of the coin. He feels that life should not be so strict. 2:00 pm for him is anytime within 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm. If he’s running late then people must understand and realize that this is the norm of the world and should guess themselves that something goes wrong.

With his office colleagues, social events and with his family his dealing is the same.

Now the most important part begins. If I ask you the question: “Who would you like to work for, hire or marry?”

For example if all other attributes were of the same—education, competence and looks etc. And you’d the option to choose, hire, or working for from Zain and Ahmed, who would you choose? Close your eyes and think?

After you've thought; now see what we wrote:

In activity “write down the attributes/ image of both Ahmed and Zain” we and other group’s common attributes that we wrote were following:

"The art of never being late" has two points to be focused on:

1. Correct estimation of time:

The first is to correctly estimate the required time for all activities. Of course, we shouldn't become too scientific and we can’t actually in this but a good guess is what we are looking at. So if this is traveling somewhere then how much time would it take from the beginning to the end? Similarly, if this is writing a report or working on a project then how long will it take?

All it takes is to sit down and calculate the steps that an activity takes and individually calculate the time for each step and then add it up; the more complex the activity is, the more steps you should divide the task into.

For example if you are going to catch a flight that takes off at 5:30 pm? Work backwards from the time that you plan to be at the airport and estimate the time that it requires you to be ready and travel to the airport. This will look like this:

The interesting thing about breaking up an activity is that you would get a realistic picture. For you to catch a flight at 5:30 pm, you would need to start moving at 2:40 pm.

Now go ahead and apply the same concept to other activities in your life.

1. Keeping a buffer:

"Timelenders" team defines a buffer as:

“ The time incorporated into an activity that accounts for delays that can be anticipated”.

In the above example, we can have traffic delays or a flat tyre. The length of the buffer differs from situation to situation. For example in the above case you may decide to keep a 15 minutes buffer. This means that you need to start moving at 2:25 pm and not 2:40 pm.

Let’s suppose another thing, you've to meet with a person at 4:00 PM and you think that drive time is around 30 minutes. Suppose you leave at 3:30 PM and 3 signals comes on the way and your experience suggest that if I find any signal, average time each signal takes is 2 minutes and if somewhere around I find heavy traffic, it takes up to 10 minutes. Of course these all information comes from your experience you've come across.

So possible delay can be:

1. 3 signals * 2 minutes each = 6 m
2. Heavy Traffic = 10 m

Total estimated delay: =16 Minutes

So instead of leaving our office at 3:30 pm we should include 16 minutes as “buffer time” and leave our office at 3:14 pm. Now what happens if you found these all signals closed and observed heavy traffic on the road, even then you’ll be reaching on the time. That exactly you prepared for and wanted.

Even though you don’t find all of the signals closed but heavy traffic can take more time, you wouldn't be late either.

Means keeping a buffer saved you! It is not a rocket science but an easier way to make your life easier.

There is a “hundred million” question why we don’t keep buffer normally?

We don’t keep buffer because of following reasons, In Timelenders language they call it 3 Ponies:

1. I/ me (! ???)

Arrogance or “qibr” thinking I am more important, I am better. I am late whatever they think I don’t care and why I should care because I am I !

1. Then what? (??? ??? ????)

This is more common as compare to first one. If for example I took 16 minutes of buffer and I on a particular day there were no any signal off and there was no heavy traffic, then what will happen my 16 minutes buffer will be of no use. So we think that why to keep buffer as it’s now wasted.

But if we get these free minutes, don’t waste, spoil, angry or arrogant. And don’t get upset. It can be utilized in a best way. Just call to your loved ones, your mother, your aunty, uncle or a friend to ask about their health etc. If not this do something you like, read, recite Quran, or not even doing this. Even if you’ve nothing to do, cann’t we do zikkar, astagfar, durrod shareef ? for which we don’t have to do ablution, have muss’ala and sit towards kibla etc. And what’s better than that. So do the things that add value to your life.

1. So what? (?? ??? ????)

This third is the most dangerous and most common, we think that “what will happen if we don’t keep buffer; will it dooms the sky?, mountains will break, roof will fall down, etc etc. Go on yar it’s Pakistan. If we’re 15 minutes late in meeting so what?, if we arrive at friend’s marriage ceremony in end time so what?, if I reach home late night without informing so what?, To kya hoga, phir kya hua? is now become our Takya Kalam”

So we must have to keep eye on these 3 Ponies on keeping a buffer.

In the end I was also moved then by a verse by Kipling which has always remained with me:

" If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run -- Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, and -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son! "

References:

Training attended in-house: Shangrila Academy (https://www.shangrila.com.pk/)

Training content: Timelenders (https://www.timelenders.com/)