Why youre always late and how to better manage your time

Why youre always late and how to better manage your timeWhy youre always late and how to better manage your timeAre you someone who is frequently running late for work or meetings? Or, are you known for always turning up late to friends parties?If so, not only are you increasing your chances of missing out on something important but youre also in danger of damaging your health as studies have shown that one of the biggest causes of stress is lateness.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreTo help you shed your reputation of always being late (and possibly improve your health) here are some top tips on how to better manage your timeLearn how to manage your timeIf lateness is becoming a serious problem and its impacting on your job, atime management courseby personal professional development training firm, such as Impact Factory, can seriously help you to take back control of your time. The course shows you how to look into what is causing you to be late, gives advice on how to set priorities and discusses a number of tools and techniques you can put in place to ensure you continue to manage your time effectively.Say, no and mean itAs much as you hate being late, it may continually happen if youre taking on too many projects or responsibilities. This may be down to your reluctance or inability to say No. Its important that you learn to prioritize tasks and, or bin projects that are not going to achieve results. Plus, if you do say No but find that later on you are easily talked into doing it, it may be helpful to explain your reason for declining the offer or invite.Let goLetting go and delegating can be particularly tricky, if you have been heavily involved in building up a project from scratch or if you are the owner of a geschftsleben and you find it hard to let go. But, taking on too many responsibilities could be the root cause of your lateness. If you have th e right talent in place, your colleagues or staff will have the skills and experience needed to do the job properly. Your job is to learn to have trust in them and pass on tasks, so you are free to focus on other things like increasing sales, for example.Get better sleepSome people are able to function on five hours of sleep, while others need around eight to nine hours each night. Whats more important is the quality of the sleep you get and not the amount. If you find that you are laid in bed tossing and turning, or if you struggle to fall off to sleep, look into ways in which you can improve your sleep quality. It could be that you need a new mattress or that there is too much light coming into the room.Eliminate distractionsTo stop a task taking longer than it should, you should eliminate any source of distraction so you can solely focus on what needs doing. This could be working from somewhere quiet so youre not tempted to get into a conversation with a colleague. Or, if you fin d youre distracted by incoming emails, you can shut down all your browsers, turn off your phone or turn off notifications. If youre tempted to check out what is being posted on social media or to play a game on your phone, you need a blocking app, like Offtime.Hopefully, by incorporating some of these tips into your day, youll get a firm grasp on your time management, so youll never be late for important meetings or dinner-dates again.This article first appeared on Coffee Break.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people