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Good morning, John. It's a Friday, and we've got some different perspectives on punctuality. I get to the airport...
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like a half hour before the flight takes off.
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I mean, it's Missoula, and I'm usually checked in beforehand anyway
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and I never check a bag because I change my pants like once a week.
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That might be too much information, it might be a pro tip. I'm not sure. But in 10 years of doing it this way
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I've never missed a flight. I have however been late for a lot of things. I am a chronically late person. Sometimes
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I'm just trying to get that last thing done before I go out the door
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or I just totally spaced and forgot the thing existed.
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And I always underestimate how long something is going to take. I don't like this about myself.
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I understand that me showing up late is seen as a sign of disrespect by people and it is! It is disrespectful.
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I feel terrible about that because I really respect the people I work with and I value them tremendously
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but I'm not showing it. This has gotten worse with the book
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which has a lot of deadlines and a lot of meetings and a lot of
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signing and signing and signing and signing and signing...yeah. And also ever since Orin was born,
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I've just had to do a better job of implementing the strategies that I have developed over the last
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20 years of being someone who is chronically late.
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And here are seven of the most important things that I as a chronically late person do to not be that person as much.
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1. I let people know when I'm going to be late
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and I let them know by how much I'm going to be late
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and I do not lie about that. If I'm gonna be 10 minutes late
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I don't engage in some sort of miraculous wishful thinking and think "maybe I will get there in five minutes,
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so I'll say I'm gonna be five minutes late because it'll make it a little less bad right in the moment" and then stretch the bad
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feeling out a little bit. No, this is terrible. Never do this!
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2. Think of the thing that's gonna happen not as the time at which it's going to happen, but as the amount of time
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until it's going to happen. My deeply irrational brain sees 11:49 and 11:50 as two very different times
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But it understands that 11 minutes from now is very similar to 10 minutes from now.
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My phone actually tells me how many minutes something is away rather than at what time it will happen.
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3. If it's gonna take six minutes to get somewhere, I need to be driving out of the driveway with six minutes left, not standing up from my desk to go find my computer
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and wonder where my keys are and then kiss my baby
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goodbye, so that I get in the car and the meeting has already started.
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All those things are gonna happen every time. I need to plan for them.
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4. Multiple alarms. I have two alarms that go off for every event: one a half an hour before the event and one
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two minutes before the event. This is especially helpful for things like conference calls because I don't have to go anywhere,
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I don't have to stand up from my desk. And if a half an hour passes between when I get reminded
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And when the call is I'm gonna be deep...
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researching salt mining techniques or something by the time the conference call runs around. I know this about myself
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so I have that two-minute warning.
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I just get on the conference call which is maybe number 5. Sometimes
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I get on the conference call five, even ten minutes before that call starts and just listen to that dope music and do other stuff
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so that I'm not late when other people show up.
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6. Here's a thing about myself: I like to not waste time, and this is part of the problem.
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And I feel like if I get someplace early that will be a waste of time.
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But I have mentally shifted myself to realize that if I get someplace early
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something interesting and useful is going to happen at that place in the same way that it's happening at my desk if I'm not leaving early.
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And finally number 7, my most important tip: every time you are late, get out your little notes-taking app, whatever it is,
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And write down why it happened.
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Diagnose yourself. Understand yourself. Figure this out.
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So that is both advice and an apology to everyone including you John.
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I'm sorry that I'm late all the time, and I'll see you on Tuesday.
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And yes, signed editions of 'An Absolutely Remarkable Thing' are going to be a thing. Limited number, not all pre-orders will be signed.
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But they are currently available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million.
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They will also be available at your local bookstore when the book comes out, but only in the US and Canada.
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That's just how it works, I'm sorry. And if you already ordered, don't worry,
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the book hasn't shipped yet
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so you can very easily go in and cancel it and order the signed edition which is a separate thing on those websites.
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There's links at hankgreen.com.