things i'm not very good at #1

Being on time

I had to be up and out early this morning to run an errand (well, when I say early, it was 8.40am - though that really is early for me). And it reminded me that one of the things that I'm not very good at is being on time. I've got better at it as I've got older - or maybe it's just that I've managed to find a way of organising things around me so that these days I rarely run the risk of being late.

In fact, I used to have quite a reputation for my lack of time-keeping skills. Some years ago I used to have to make a regular trip from Covent Garden down to an important client in Victoria (usually by bus, or taxi if I was really running late - but the time it took was always unpredictable). One day - I'm not sure how - I managed to turn up five minutes early. The receptionist called up to the contact, had a brief conversation and then asked me if I wouldn't mind hanging around for another 30 minutes. And when I got upstairs it was explained that meetings were always arranged at the client end 30 minutes after they were agreed with me - that was their way of ensuring that I'd turn up on time.

Comments

[Richard]

I'm right there with you on this one David. Or rather, 5 minutes behind you!

Not only am I habitually late to work by almost exactly 10 minutes every day, but as a company, we're always, always late for meetings. So much so, we tell our clients we work on "hamillTime". They're used to it.

We even won a major piece of business because we were late. Well, actually, what happended was that we couldn't find anywhere to park so dumped the car a mile away and legged it to the meeting. I'm terribly unfit so the other two guys easily beat me there, the first arriving and saying, "there's one right behind me and a fat bloke trailing behind!", me, of course, being the fat bloke.

Anyway, after they awarded us the business they said it was partly because we bummbled into the room in such a state it really made them laugh and the previous meeting had been with a bunch of really dull people.

I attribute both habits of lateness to "the independant and rebelious nature of the designer". I've never liked being told what to do or when to do it and I think it's this that makes me question the obvious approach in my work and look for something with that little twist.

[davidthedesigner]

Thanks Richard. So next time I'm late for a meeting I must remember to explain that's it's simply "the independent and rebellious nature of the designer".

[Ben]

No wonder you're always late if you think that 8.40 is early.

Nice postcards, by the way.

[david george]

I wish I could be late for things, I have a really problem having I lie in and 8:40 would be a lie in for me these days.
As I have got older the 'being late thing' has become silly I set off earily for almost every thing and start to get really hot and bothered if it looks like I am going to be late. I must have lost the 'independant and rebellious nature' by working in educatiion for too long.

[Claire Gates]

Richard - that story is really funny.

David - shame on you. 8.40 would be a lie in for me too!