I don’t like wasting time

People who are consistently late for appointments or meetings tends to share a particular trait. They don’t like waiting around – it’s a waste of time.

In their eyes arriving 5 or 10 minutes early for an appointment wastes valuable time that could be spent on other things.  So they will cram in more activities and leave setting off until the very last minute.

In their eyes that’s being efficient.

Buffer zone

In some of our NLP courses we ‘model’ or identify what’s behind how people do things. Whenever we do this on the subject of comparing the latecomers versus the ‘on time’ people one key trait surfaces: the ‘on time’ people give themselves leeway.

In planning to arrive at 2:15 PM meeting Kerry, who likes to be on time, will estimate the journey time and then some extra time as a ‘buffer zone’ to allow for contingencies such as meeting somebody on the way, being delayed at traffic lights, the train being late, and so on. Continue reading →