Arrive on time and get more help from others

The one who is frequently late for meetings is less likely to receive help from their colleagues when they need it. This was what the study titled ”An experimental investigation of the interpersonal ramifications of lateness to workplace meetings” from the University of Nebraska at Omaha indicated. Researchers Mroz and Allen looked into how late arrival is perceived by other meeting participants and how this in the long-run influenced their willingness to, later on, help the one who was repeatedly late.

For you who prefer listening to reading, this post is also available as an episode of the “Done!” podcast:

Tardiness makes for testy colleagues

Hardly to anyone’s surprise, the researchers found that late arrival inspires anger, frustration, and irritation in those who made sure to be on time — especially when the reason for being late was something the person guilty of it could easily have influenced or prevented. They also found that this irritation made the people who were kept waiting less inclined to help the late colleague if they should require assistance with something in the future.

This is why you, I, and anyone else for that matter, have everything to gain from doing what we can to be punctual and on time for our meetings.

Try this

If you have been arriving late for more meetings than usual lately, have had to run the last hundred meters to be on time, or have logged in late for online meetings (for which you cannot blame your tardiness on getting stuck in traffic…) and wish to do better from now on, try one of the following suggestions:

Only use notifications and reminders for meetings when you really need them so that you do not ”wear them out” and stop listening to them.
Set the reminder for the meeting at exactly the time which will ensure you make it to the meeting but not have too much time to spare. If you set the reminder too close to the meeting, you will have to hurry to be on time and arrive out of breath (perhaps figuratively speaking when it comes to online meetings, but you get the idea). However, it is not a good idea to set the reminder too long before the meeting since you might then start to ”snooze” the alarm or shut it off completely because you know very well that you still have plenty of time and do not have to go just yet. You might start doing other things you ”just want to finish before you go” and end up leaving later than you should have in order to be on time.
If the meeting is held somewhere other than at your office, use the map-service or ‑app of your preference to estimate the time it will take you to get there.
Make sure to give yourself some buffer time in between meetings so that they are not scheduled one right after another. Remember that you might have to move between locations, something unforeseen might come up, or a meeting might take a few minutes longer than it was supposed to.
If you tend to be optimistic when it comes to estimating how long things actually take and are tired of having to run at a sprint between meetings, always double the time you spontaneously estimate it will take to move from one meeting to the next. If you think it will take ten minutes — double it and make it twenty. Repeat this rule of thumb until you notice that you are becoming better at estimating more accurately.

Less running, more focus

If you are on time for meetings you will have a few minutes to gather your thoughts before it starts. You will be more present and focused during the meeting which means you will get more out of it and get better results altogether. If the conclusions drawn in the study mentioned earlier are right, you will also end up getting more help when you need it, which in turn makes your life and work easier. That alone makes it worth being on-time more often.

What’s your method?

How do you ensure that you are always on time for your meetings? Let me know in an email to me!

(By the way, do you know these three tricks for being on time?)

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