Time

[Quoth]

One of my older co-workers remarked to a manager, "These twenty-somethings are hard workers but they have terrible punctuality". While I didn't necessarily appreciate blanket statements, I had to bite my tongue and swallow my pride, because I am anything but punctual.

That leads me to my questions: do you consider your time? Do you follow a set schedule? How do you go about setting up that schedule?

In an effort to be more punctual and improve efficiency in my life, I have split my time up into various categories:

Religious Time - All activities that are intended for spiritual assessment or teaching, or those sponsored by the various religious organizations I am involved in (i.e., church, Bible study, devotional/prayer time, church volunteer programs, etc.).

Work Time - All activities that include me being "on the clock" earning income.

Social Time - All activities where I am actively and purposely involved in an event with friends or family. These are planned events with either friends or family.

Personal Time - Unlike free time, my personal time is the time spent grooming, cleaning, and/or improving myself in some way. This is not liesure time, but rather time spent on those necessary things to be a contributing member of society without causing a (literal) stink.

School Time - This is time spent at formal institutions of education, as well as time spent on homework, studying, etceteras.

Travel Time - Time spent in my car.

Meal Time - Time spent eating.

Free Time - Time where I can "goof off" by myself or choose what I want to do at a whim.

For those of you who follow a schedule, in what ways does it help you?

 

[JennyKatz]

I'm compulsively punctual. I've always been that way. I'd rather be too early than too late. But there are very few things I set in stone, as far as my schedule is concerned. My classes, obviously, are at set times, but the rest of my schedule is fluid. Six years in the military left me with an incredible distaste for overly rigid schedules. Stupid ship's whistles. . .grrrrrr

 

[CMar04]

Classes and work are the only things that I have schedules for and I hate being late for things.

 

[wallaby]

i dont have a schedule pinpointing things to an hour, but i do have to observe certain dates, for example when my garbage goes out or when a class assignment is due. i work better without a schedule and tend to do things in a timely manner after a decent amount of procrastination.

 

[elliotps932]

My work is love. Love is work.

 

[Qyöt27]

I'd rather be too early than too late. But there are very few things I set in stone, as far as my schedule is concerned. My classes, obviously, are at set times, but the rest of my schedule is fluid. Six years in the military left me with an incredible distaste for overly rigid schedules. Stupid ship's whistles. . .grrrrrr

Same here, except I was never in the military. My problem is that in many cases I'm at the mercy of those around me if we have to go somewhere, and they often can be rather late.

My schedule tends to be more free-form, largely because I have trouble keeping my sleeping pattern on track. So things tend to shift in time, but may not shift in sequence. Like, I'll wake up - I use the bathroom, then fix my coffee, turn my computer on, take a shower while the coffee's brewing, and then work on stuff on the comp while drinking said coffee. If breakfast is thrown in there it's usually while drinking the coffee or afterward (depends on whether it goes well with coffee - cereal I usually don't take a break to eat unless I'm either starving* or have a headache that might be due to hunger and we have nothing I want other than cereal, although stuff like coffee cake, donuts, Pop Tarts, Toaster Strudel, etc. I'll eat with it). Other than that, there's not much set in stone over what I do during the day. Tasks change, as does when I find time to get them done.

*which is not often, since the coffee actually suppresses my appetite

 

[ido]

My parents tell me I will be late for my own funeral. I'm more of an on-demand kind of person. When I was at home with the mancubs when they were really little, we didn't keep a schedule and our routine was very relaxed. We ate when we were hungry, slept when we were sleepy, and so on. I miss that, actually. lol

 

[cjordan08]

i hate to be late to anything, dr.appts, work. i tried to be at least 15minutes early to everything.

 

[MikePantelides]

I'm late a lot, sometimes I am occasionally early but thats maybe if I got the earlier bus by chance or something. I have OCD so that kinda doesn't help. If I feel there is room to be late I usually end up not leaving early. Only some job interviews I get there early, most of the time i'm either bang on time or a couple of minutes early/late.
I don't like being too early and having to hang around, some times it's nice though less stress...depends I guess. Things tend to work out well though.

 

[toastface_grillah]

My parents tell me I will be late for my own funeral. I'm more of an on-demand kind of person. When I was at home with the mancubs when they were really little, we didn't keep a schedule and our routine was very relaxed. We ate when we were hungry, slept when we were sleepy, and so on. I miss that, actually. lol

Ahh, life at its finest.
I was fired from a job once for being late too much (kind of like the OP's older coworker's sentiment/blanket statement). It was an abomination of a job, but since then, I've been somewhat more punctual.

 

[E.C.]

My life during the week: work. School. Maybe sleep.

My life on weekends: work. Sleep. Church.


It all works out in one way or another.

 

[NathanHocking]

I am always a minimum of 5 minutes early. on time is early, if your not early your late.

 

[Manda_24]

I am on time for everything, I hate being late and I really don't like it when other people are late. I don't really have a set schedule, besides work and classes. I'm usually pretty early for work, so is about everyone else, for class I'm there on time, not usually super early. Growing up we were always on time for everything, my dad hated being late, I guess I get it from him. I think it's a really good quality though.