Time: < 30 Minutes

STEP 1: Set boundaries. These are important to know and adhere to with others. Recognize that not everyone has the same timelines as you do.

• Share your clear expectation with others. If you need something by Friday, tell them you need it by Thursday to allow yourself review and edit time.
• If you know someone is always late, tell them you’d like to meet 15 minutes earlier than you usually would. This gives you 15 minutes to make a call or review emails while waiting, without messing up your schedule.
• When providing a project for someone to work on, ask them when they can have it back to you. This way, they are setting the deadline. If it is someone that has been challenged in the past with getting things to you in time, ask them to put it on both of your calendars.
• If a family member cannot get up in time to make it out the door in a timely manner, have them get up 15 minutes earlier so it doesn’t cause either of you unnecessary stress.

STEP 2: If you’ve tried these things and it isn’t working, ask the other person how it can be remedied. Use the “When…It Causes…I’d like…” response – (When you don’t get up when your alarm goes off, it causes both of us to be behind in the morning and gets us off to a stressed, rushed and frustrated start. Moving forward, I’d like for you to get up after it goes off. If you need more time to wake up, set your alarm for 15 minutes earlier and hit snooze twice. After that, you must get up. If this doesn’t work, a) there will be consequences and b) we’ll have to move to something more rigid, like going to bed earlier.

STEP 3: There will always be some backslide but stand firm in your expectations. After a few frustrating situations, it will likely correct itself.