Being on time is a wonderful thing. Employers, friends, family, colleagues, professors, etc. will all appreciate you making it to meetings and events at the correct time. However, sometimes people can take punctuality a little too seriously. Being OCD about being on time to things can have some big downsides too. You can add a lot of unnecessary stress and anxiety to yourself about deadlines and meetings. Also, you can make other parties feel a little awkward when you are the first to show to an interview, meeting, etc.
Nonetheless, here are 7 signs that you may be a little too punctual:
1. You triple check your alarms.
Whether you're taking a nap or settling into your nightly slumber, you always make sure you set your alarms for the right AM/PM. Next, you check to see if your alarm volume is turned all the way up, and your ringer is on. If you really have something important to wake up for you may even set multiple alarms just to reassure that you will wake up on time.
2. You set those alarms way earlier than you really need to.
All those alarms that you have set are most likely set significantly earlier than they need to be. If you need an hour to get ready, you give yourself an hour and a half just to be safe. If it takes you 10 minutes to walk to a class, you better give yourself 20. If you have a 30-minute drive to work, you are in the car at least 45 minutes beforehand in case you run into unexpected traffic.
3. You would self-destruct if you ever lost your planner or calendar.
Without knowing exact dates, times and deadlines you would legitimately have no idea what to do with your life. Keeping yourself on a schedule keeps you sane. Keeping a physical planner if always really helpful to visualize your schedule, but phone and computer calendars are great in this day and age as well.
4. You set constant reminders throughout the day or write a plethora of to-do lists.
Your planner and desk are covered in sticky notes and to-do lists. In addition, you keep those lists constantly floating around your head reminding yourself of everything you have to stay on top of. Your daydream spacey moments are actually just you attempting to organize and plan.
5. You always show up uncomfortably early to meetings, classes, jobs, etc.
It's very typical for you to be the first person to arrive to any event. You are always the first party to any meeting. Sometimes, you are so uncomfortably early that you are left sitting outside of a meeting playing on your phone or twiddling your thumbs before the other party arrives.
6. You constantly sprint/speed to every event even though you are probably already running early.
You are constantly pressured with the feeling of being late when, in reality, you are ridiculously early. This pressure results in having constant Olympian paced speed walk for your everyday stride. It can also be transposed into driving habits and having an unnecessarily heavy lead foot.
7. You start stressing about upcoming assignments and events way before you actually need to.
You have a huge project due a week and a half from now. It is your prime time to start having an absolute meltdown about making preparations for this assignment. It's time to get out the sticky notes and lists and giving yourself tasks that you have to accomplish each day in order to get it done.
While there are ups and downs to having this obsession with timeliness you must simply come to terms with the fact that this is how your mind functions, and you just have to make the reasonable adjustments and love yourself the way you are. So just hold onto your mantra and keep telling yourself, “early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable!”.
