Yesterday I pulled out of my driveway and scraped my car against the corner of my neighbors house. This of course resulted in a srapes along three panels of my car and the corner of my neighbors house FELL OFF! My husband was in the drivway and helped me sort of re-attached some loose trim and talked to the home owner. Finally we both drove off to our appointment and I hear a THUD. I look in my rear veiw mirror only to see all of my husbands papers, drawings and measurements for a closet install scattered all over the road behind me. Apparently he had put these on the roof when he stopped to help! From there it seemed like my bad day was building. I felt like everything little challenge yesterday was overwhelming. Normal things like even deciding what to have for dinner were a struggle.

Looking back, I was building a bad day. If I had changed my perspective, I may not have had categorized the string of events that followed as part of my “bad day” and I may have handled them with a more positive attitude. Shift in thinking are so powerful. Often when people are disorganized, they have “strings of events” that turn south. Try not to wallow in it. Stop and make a mental shift and see how you can get on with a good day!

If you are trying to change any habit-set your self up for success by taking less on during that time.  We have been focusing on lateness and procrastination lately but this can help with any behavior change from smoking to getting exercise!  Reducing stress at that time increases your will power to succeed.  Stress often makes you resort to those old ways of dealing with things instead of trying new ways. 

So clear the decks and plan successful change by giving yourself a little break to do so.

Free Tele Class to Teach You How to Be on Time

Do you feel the need to squeeze as much activity as you can into each day?
Do you view “unproductive time” as time wasted?
Are you pleased when the day goes by quickly?
Do you regularly under estimate everyday tasks like getting ready for in the morning or driving to work?

If you answered “yes” to 2-3 of these questions, you would be labeled a “producer” in Diane DeLonzer’s book, Never Be Late Again. I must admit that I clearly fit this label! A producer’s battle cry is ” If I hurry, I can…”. Producers are optimists/gamblers. Their thinking is, checking these last two things off me list is more important that being a 100% certain that they will be on time. The rationalization is that they can cross those items off and if EVERYTHING else goes perfectly…they could still be on time. Well, we all know what happens. Producers schedule things tightly to avoid the dreaded down time. We grumble about how BUSY we are and forget that WE are the ones who over-committed! We live daily with this driving desire to GET IT ALL DONE! Here is a little secret…you are NEVER going to get it ALL DONE! So take a deep breath and try some of DeLonzor’s techniques to make a change:

When you feel your self saying, “If I hurry….” replace that with “I am being realistic or optimistic….”
Practice saying “NO” so that you are comfortable doing only things that are important.
Prepare to wait. If you don’t like waiting have something to do!
Practice transitions. Use alarms that make you stop what your doing to turn them off–and you have just started a timely transition!

You are not alone! Many of us are so overwhelmed with to-do’s and commitments and distracted by multiple media streams competing for our attention that I think it is like “Self Inflicted ADD”. There are so many things competing for our attention that we lose track. The first line of defense is to slow down and unload some of the things that distract you.

If this doesn’t help and you find that this is a life-long problem it is time to face it and use tools to set yourself up for success. I often recommend electronic calendars/organizers to clients who suffer with these time challenges. Having these features incorporated into a smartphone really helps. First of all, it is a fact that people learn to use their phones! The more features that are integrated into a phone the more these tools can help. They also sync with your computer, so that if you lose the handheld phone, the data is protected.

Using alarms to keep you on track really helps.  It may feel silly at first, but if it works do it!  When transitions are the problem set alarms that require you to actually get up to turn them off.  Moving out of your space is a big component to get you up and able to transition to the next step.  Setting up a reminder rich environment with minimal distractions is the key.  Accepting this trait to be part of how your brain works and putting systems in place will empower you to start making the changes you need to succeed.

Do you find yourself thinking…just one more thing…before I go? This is a huge problem for people who are chronically late. They aren’t bad people, they just don’t see time realistically. They are “time optimists” and are simply trying to check off one more thing and beat the clock. The idea of “transition times” does not exsist and the schedule one thing right next to the next with no time to breath. the bad news is that even in a perfect world with no red lights of technical difficulties to get in the way, it take time to transition and switch gears. Adding “transition times” or buffers between scheduled items will really help. It is the dicipline to make that a habit that is really tough. It goes against the “all or nothing thinking” that is such a huge part of disorganization and lateness. “If I get this all done now, I won’t have anything to do later”, but that is not how it works.
So start adding buffers. If you can’t imaging making a total switch here…do it gradually! Add buffers to two appointments each day this week and see how it helps. See how it feels. You may even end up being early. How does that feel? Many chronically late people find being early PAINFUL. Be prepared with something that can fill those times or more importantly RELAX and think about how it feels to be on time. Focus on how your heart isn’t racing. Notice that you are not thinking of witty excuses or making a grand entrance. Most importantly picture the people that you are not letting down. Taking time to FEEL how it feels to be on time reinforces that positive behavior and you are more likely to repeat and expand it!

The math is a little confusing and reminds me of tenth grade calculus, but the EPA has set up this equation:
CO2 emissions from a gallon of gasoline = 2,421 grams x 0.99 x (44/12) = 8,788 grams = 8.8 kg/gallon = 19.4 pounds/gallon
To show that the single gallon of gas that you use burns up and becomes a whopping 19.4 pounds of CO2 in our atmosphere. This was astonishing to me and I decided to see how many pounds of CO2 I had spared our delicate atmosphere by biking to work this summer. I have not biked every day, but have tried my best and biked about 11 times. It is only a 1.6 mile ride meaning I have ridden about 35.2 miles this summer. My car gets about 16 mpg so if I had driven I would have used 2.2 gallons so far. That doesn’t sound like a whole lot but I have already saved 42.68 pounds of CO2 from reaching our ozone.
And if YOU start biking places too, then our combined efforts will make a significant impact!