How You Treat Time Is How You Treat People
One of the simpler ways to judge people is observing how they value your time. How much they value your time reveals how much they value you. People rarely show up late on dates with women they have fallen for. Even when they do, they apologise profusely and vow never to repeat it. The same courtesy rarely extends to their wives or friends.
Punctuality is not a tool for bragging. It offers a precise window into how someone manages their entire life, including their routine. The more organised a person is, the more attuned they are to the passing of time. Punctuality is the simplest way to gauge that attunement.
Many people struggle with punctuality, and the reason lies in their perception of time. They have no clear sense of how much time a given task demands. For instance, how long does it take from waking up to having your morning coffee in hand? That is the buffer you need before you plan to leave for anything.
I have a habit of timing every monotonous activity in my routine so that whenever there is a need to rush, I know which tasks can be compressed and which absolutely cannot. You cannot introduce efficiency into your life without first measuring the time required to produce a quality output. When nothing in your life is measured, you have no real sense of time passing at all.
When you lack any perception of how your day unfolds, where your time is being wasted or invested, you cannot optimise it. Everything becomes arbitrary. Someone asks you to meet for dinner at eight and you have no idea when to start preparing in order to actually arrive at eight.
Absence of measurement means absence of anything to improve. And consequently, an absence of any real mental organisation. This does not only show in how you conduct your time; it shows in how you conduct your entire life. Your attitude, your approach, your behaviour, your casualness are all determined by your capacity to organise different things in your head.
If you are not punctual and want to reclaim your time, the best place to start is measuring everything in your life. How long do you need for a shower, how long to prepare a coffee, how much time do you spend on social media, and more importantly, how much time do you lose to overthinking. Only after you measure these things will you understand how to manage your time effectively.
To take control of your time and your life, you first need to know exactly where that control is being lost.