Never Be Late

I got told off for a Top Tips issue not so long ago. Apparently it was more of a Cure gig review than a useful email.

That’s fair enough, I do go on the wrong side of a ramble now and again. Apologies! So I’ll try and get straight to the point this week. Well, sooner rather than later anyway. 

Time Of Her Time

This week’s theme was inspired by a recent football match between Manchester United and Wolverhampton Wanderers. As a Man Utd fan I’ve known the good times. For my generation they began at the start of the 90s and lasted right up to May 2013. 

They really were the good times but there has been very little to celebrate in the last decade. More than Tottenham, obviously, but it’s been a painful stretch with plenty of false dawns and season after season of underperformance.

There are signs, however, that the sleeping red giant seems to be stirring. One of these signs is that our main striker is scoring goals again.

Gotta Get Up, Gotta Get Up

Local lad and academy alumnus Marcus Rashford MBE has remembered what his daytime job entails, and is currently hitting the back of the onion bag every time he steps on the pitch. 

Coincidentally though, while he might well have found his shooting boots, it turns out he’s misplaced his alarm clock.

It was widely reported on the back pages that he overslept and was late to a team meeting.  As punishment for this he was dropped from the starting line up for the game against Wolves. He took his punishment on the chin and then promptly scored the winner in the second half.

Marcus seems like a fine individual but his sloppy approach to timekeeping didn’t go down well with one visibly riled Match Of The Day pundit.

Right Here Right Now

Alan Shearer, who certainly knew where the back of the net was, was forthright about Marcus’ tardiness. It turns out Shearer has a fierce opinion about turning up on time.

He did begrudgingly admit that that mistakes do happen but insisted if it was to become a habit then that would be a real problem. And then he came out with this classic maxim.

“To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late. And to be late is totally unacceptable.”

It’s a brilliant phrase and it somehow it sounded even better delivered in his soft Geordie burr. 

Read it again, in his accent if you want, but really let it sink in. Stop thinking that being on time is on time. It’s not, you need to be earlier than the target time. To be early is to be on time.

This Is The Time For Action

This week’s Top Tip is very simply to follow Alan’s advice.

Most Time Management stuff isn’t anything to do with punctuality - the main bulk of it is about prioritisation, processes and delegation - but being on time is incredibly important.

It’s important for many reasons so let’s take a quick look at them. 

- The time that you arrive tells people about yourself. 

- When you’re ahead of schedule you’re informing others that you are a serious person and you take the situation seriously.

- Whatever the event is, you are showing that you have respect for it. 

- You are revealing that you are organised and well prepared.

- You make it clear that you are aware of unforeseen obstacles and that your approach allows for these.

- You demonstrate that you respect the other people involved. 

- You show that you respect the resources being used whether that’s time, skill, effort or money.

- You show that you are someone who takes responsibility and who can be trusted.

- You show that you have respect for yourself.

I'm Outta Time

That’s a lot isn’t it? Just by being early you are presenting all these different positive facets about yourself.

And of course the reverse is also true when you do the opposite. 

If you’re late you might not think it matters. But it does.

You’re demonstrating that you think your time is more important than their time. And that could often translate into people seeing you as irresponsible, unprepared, untrustworthy, bad value, lazy, disrespectful . . . the list goes on.

So this weekend take a second or two to check in and consider which sort of person from Alan Shearer’s maxim you are. Early, On Time Or Late. 

And if you’re not satisfied with the one you currently are what would you have to change to switch it up? Set the alarm clock for ten minutes earlier? Make sure the alarm clock is on? Buy an alarm clock?!