{"id":212,"date":"2021-06-17T02:25:30","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T02:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/?p=212"},"modified":"2021-06-17T02:25:30","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T02:25:30","slug":"how-to-stop-being-late-for-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/?p=212","title":{"rendered":"How to Stop Being Late for Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Are you a time-optimist? \u23f1\ufe0f<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A time-optimist is a person who always thinks they can fit in one more thing, or they allow <\/strong>just <\/em><\/strong>enough time to get things done under ideal circumstances. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, they\u2019re late for everything. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They always <\/em>have an excuse which they breathlessly explain immediately upon arrival. Once you get to know the time-optimist, it\u2019s sort of a game to guess what excuse they will use this <\/em>time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Me? I\u2019m early for everything, which means I\u2019m a time-pessimist. I worry about being late. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, being late goes hand-in-hand with being disorganized and ineffective. Let\u2019s look at a simple example to illustrate what I mean:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Me (a time-pessimist) and Otis (a time-optimist) both have listing appointments at 3:00 pm this afternoon. Coincidentally, the properties are side by side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I completed my initial CMA two days ago, fine-tuned it yesterday at 10:30 am, and reviewed it again today at 2:00 pm, an hour before my appointment. These events didn\u2019t happen by fluke or because I\u2019ve got more time to burn than Otis has. On the contrary, I\u2019m far busier than Otis is, but I run my life by controlling my calendar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I purposely scheduled \u2018Appointments with Myself\u2019 to ensure each step of my CMA process – including the fine-tuning session and final review – got completed on time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My listing appointment is only 15 minutes away, but I leave at 2:30, just in case there\u2019s heavy traffic or something else goes wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sail straight there and arrive early at 2:45. No problem. I park down the street and quickly review my CMA one more time. I\u2019m feeling very confident with it, so I use the remaining extra time to check and respond to my messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deliberately allowing extra time between appointments is one reason I\u2019m always on top of everything. After all, I can run my entire life off my smartphone. Can\u2019t you? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 2:55, I drive up to the house, park in the driveway, and quickly review my notes one last time before ringing the doorbell at precisely 3:00 pm. I go in, nail it, and walk out with the signed listing contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During that appointment, a funny thing happens. At around 3:07, I hear a car screeching to a stop outside, followed by a door-slam and rapid-fire footsteps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was Otis showing up seven minutes late. He left his office \u201con time\u201d at 2:45, but apparently, he hit every red light on the way. That was his excuse this time. He uses that one quite frequently, now that I think about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, Otis has been super busy, so he never got around to starting his CMA until 2:00 pm (actually, it was 2:11). On the way over, he glanced over his CMA at the red lights, realized he messed it all up, and ended up stumbling through his presentation and not making much of an impression. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out he\u2019d already lost the listing at 3:05 anyway, before he even got there. Why?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because his potential client was a time-pessimist (like me), and she was incensed that Otis would show up late for such an important meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re a time-optimist, know this: Time-pessimists don\u2019t buy into your feeble excuses for always being late. We see this as a weakness of character and completely disrespectful of our <\/em>time. After all, we make sure we\u2019re on time for appointments. Why can\u2019t you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take a look at why Otis\u2019s life is so hectic. Is he just plain way busier than me? It sure seems that way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nope! In fact, I\u2019m doing three times the volume of business compared to Otis. There are numerous reasons for this, but I\u2019ll tell you one of the most important:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m <\/strong>not <\/em><\/strong>a time-optimist.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are one, it\u2019s time to get more pessimistic (about time)!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a massive topic that\u2019s not going to get resolved by reading a three-minute blog post. But here\u2019s a hot tip to get you started:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stop trying <\/em><\/strong>to be on time, and start planning <\/em><\/strong>(using your calendar) to be 15 minutes early. Just try it for one week, and then tell me you aren\u2019t far more efficient and organized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 15-minute time shift can completely change your life.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

A personal note from Ted: I\u2019m a natural-born optimist about most things, but when it comes to time, I’m a pessimist. It\u2019s basically part of my DNA to fret over being late, which I\u2019m grateful for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But being a time-pessimist doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m a naturally organized person. In fact, I\u2019ve got a not-so-mild form of ADHD, and I\u2019ve had to learn skills to overcome this. Otherwise, I\u2019d be a total mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point is if you\u2019re a time-optimist, and you think there\u2019s nothing you can do about it, stop fooling yourself. The skills you need to stop feeling so out of control and behind all the time are entirely learnable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are you a time-optimist? \u23f1\ufe0f A time-optimist is a person who always thinks they can fit in one more thing, or they allow just enough time to get things done under ideal circumstances.  In other words, they\u2019re late for everything. They always have an excuse which they breathlessly explain immediately upon arrival. Once you get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}