Well-Journaled October and No-Tardy November!

For my October goal poll, it was a tie for no fake swears and no days without writing in my journal. I decided to do the journaling one. I’m not going to say that what I wrote each day was profound, or lengthy, or anything exceptional. But I wrote something. And most importantly, I wrote it down while it was still fresh on my mind. Sometimes we try to play “catch-up” in our journal, and while this is better than nothing, it isn’t the same as what we would’ve written at the time. In a matter of days or weeks your perspectives can change a lot. Half the reason I write in my journal is to sort out my own thoughts about a current situation. It’s therapeutic for me. I love it. And I’m really glad I did it. I hope to continue the trend during the coming months as well!

Now, for this month’s goal. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to No-Tardy November, in which Aubrey is not allowed to be late to any commitment (i.e. class, work, church, church activities, appointments, etc.) unless there is a legitimate reason or it is something that would be socially unacceptable to be on time to. (If you think that’s going to be hard for me, just keep in mind that last year was “no-chocolate November.” This should be a piece of cake compared to that).

Why do I need to make this a goal? Well, people, my punctuality has positively gone down the drain this semester. Yes, I’ve always been a bit of a tardy person. Why? I over-schedule myself. I underestimate how long it takes me to get ready. I underestimate travel time. I accidentally turn off my alarm without fully waking up. I take cold medicine at 1:00 am because I’m coughing and then sleep through my alarm and accidentally miss Relief Society when I’m supposed to conduct (this totally didn’t happen, just a hypothetical situation I thought might happen to someone like me, not speaking from experience here at all, this totally didn’t happen two weeks ago to me, no way).

Turns out, you can only use this excuse if you’re actually a queen.

Being late doesn’t feel good. I feel rushed, unprofessional, and awkward (especially when I walk to the front row of the class I TA for and attempt to not distract from the lecture that has already begun). SO, how the heck am I going to change a life-long habit of being tardy to everything?

Well, the funny thing is, I can be on time to things that I know are important. Job interviews, the Frontrunner, things that I know I can’t just show up late to and expect all to carry on as normal. The Frontrunner will leave you. If you’re late to a job interview, you can kiss that job opportunity goodbye. But a class of 200 people, where no one is really going to care if you’re there or not? Or FHE, where a lot of people don’t show up on time anyway? Or TA office hours, where students only seldom actually visit?

I’m always thrown off by the “actual advice mallard.” I always expect it to be a joke and it isn’t. Good advice, though, mallard.

The thing is, it shouldn’t matter what it is or how “important” a commitment is. I want to foster a general habit of punctuality so that when things are important, I don’t feel like I have to bend over backwards to make myself be on time; it will just be a habit. It usually would only be the difference of a few minutes: getting up 5 minutes earlier, spending a little less time doing my makeup, choosing an outfit the night before, cutting off a conversation a little sooner, looking up from my phone and walking straight there instead of being distracted, etc. There are so many small distractions that get in the way of being on time, and being conscious of the them should make it easy to cut them out.

Here’s my plan/strategy for being on time (because we all know that just saying I’m going to hasn’t worked out so far). I will decide when I need to leave for something and commit that I’m going to leave at that time. I’ll count backwards from the time I need to be somewhere and say, “how long will it take for this? And this? And this?” and then add it all up. That will give me the time I need to start getting ready to go and doing those things. Then, I’ll have to be ready on time, right?

Of course, there are some exceptions. I have a class I can’t be on time to because it overlaps with the class before it, for example. What I’m trying to do here is be on time when I really don’t have any good reason not to.

Valid.

I’m going to try it out and let you all know how it goes. I might have to sacrifice a little sleep or go to school with a less-cute outfit once in a while, but it’ll totally be worth it. (At least, that’s the goal). Wish me luck, cause like I said, this is gonna be a toughie.