I have a habit of always being late (to class, to meals with friends and commitments, to meetings, and to my own personal schedule), so I decided to track 3 days of my life, beginning on Saturday, logging things every 15 minutes. I was consistent with logging my behavior, except I realized that weekends are when I have a more relaxed mindset and don’t feel a need to be on time, so I felt that starting on Saturday wasn’t very representative of my normal behaviors and need to be on time. However, I thought that it was also a sign that being late might actually be reinforced on the weekends, which could contribute to my overall habit of being late.
My main takeaway was that getting ready in the morning always takes me longer than I think, which is why I often head out late and arrive at my destination (practice rooms, class, study spot) late. Tracking my day made me realize I spend a lot longer in bed scrolling in the morning than I’d like (almost 30 minutes!). This sets off a loop where being late to my first item detracts from my time knocking out the task, which cascades into being late to the next item, and so on. I also saw that despite having a very detailed Google calendar, oftentimes my calendar went haywire if commitments with other people went longer than planned; since I can’t really dictate how long meetings or hanging out with other people can take, my estimation for those times in my calendar was almost always wrong. Finally, I also saw that I have a lot of inertia; I tend to stay in bed to scroll, or I tend to get stuck finishing up a task when I should move on to the next, and in general, it takes me a bit to either get going or to settle into my new task/location. I also didn’t plan for the time it takes me to get to places, which actually took up a lot of time in my daily tracking. I also didn’t account for the time to settle in addition to the travel time; heading to the practice rooms and getting my violin out actually takes me 10 minutes (not 5). Taking the Marg to the coffee shop and getting my coffee and a seat takes almost 30 minutes. Getting out of Munger actually takes me 3-5 minutes (grab keys, leave, take elevator down) in addition to my actual walking time to CoDa, Coupa, etc. So, in addition to longer travel times, I realized I needed to build in more “transition” time into my schedule, adding about 5 more minutes in addition to the travel time.
Next time, I’d actually shorten my tracking interval length to 5 minutes when I’m knocking out a short task or logging travel, because I think I’d get a more detailed and accurate representation of what happens in my morning routine, traveling periods, and task transition periods that contribute to my constant tardiness.
