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    8 Pretty Basic Things I Do To Always Be On Time

    Remember: Early is on time, and on time is late.

    My parents had just a couple of house rules growing up, two of which were: always invite someone to your birthday party if they invited you to theirs, and always be on time.

    These rules, along with the others, can be summed as "Always be a mensch." A mensch can be a lot of things, but in our family, it boiled down to being decent to people — and being on time is a huge part of that. Incorporating my parents' guiding philosophy with the realities and responsibilities of being an adult can be a struggle at times, but by god, I will not be caught dead rolling into a 7 p.m. dinner at 7:10. I am a Punctual Person and I absolutely care who knows it! And since I've spent a decent portion of my adult life trying to make my parents proud (in this one very specific way), I'm going to share exactly how I do it:

    1. To start, I count backwards from the time when I want to arrive somewhere.

    2. I pay close attention to how long things actually take.

    3. I put (some) order and systems into my life to make everything a little more efficient.

    4. I accept that if I'm running late, I don't get to do absolutely everything I wanted to do.

    5. In general, I pad my anticipated travel time with an extra 10 minutes or so.

    6. I set alarms. Lots and lots of alarms.

    7. I eliminate any and all distractions.

    8. Oh, and without fail, I always plan to be early.

    What small things do you do to make sure you're always on time? Share in the comments!