You need to set it ahead, not behind. ;) Otherwise you'll be even more late.
I'm sure it doesn't work for everyone, but I've been doing this for years, and it does help me. Yes, of course you always know that it's ahead, but it takes a moment for that fact to register, and that moment can be just long enough to incite action.
(For those who have read Thinking Fast and Slow, I think this is sort of a "hack" of System 1.) Basically I'm leveraging the reactive part of my mind to help me achieve the result that the more strategic part wants.
Sure, and yet... why is anyone ever late to anything? Let alone why are some people persistently late, in circumstances where that matters, and they know it's an issue?
Rationally that makes no sense so dismissing techniques for resolving it that also don't make rational sense on that basis seems wrong.
In my opinion, the #1 reason why people are often late is because being early sucks, so they prefer to underestimate the time it will take to be there and all the (not so) unforeseen problems that may make them arrive late.
I hate very much to be late, so I leave early and prepare a way to spend time if I arrive too early, like bringing a book to read or a podcast to listen to.
Not sure what you are trying to say here. Do you mean "because we don't know why people are getting late so dismissing a solution which I know doesn't work seems wrong" ? But you do being the reply with "sure" so was that an agreement ?
If you know that it doesn't work for you then obviously that's simply a fact.
I thought you were making a more general statement that this doesn't work because it doesn't make sense (anyone using it would just adjust their timings).
they are late because being on time is inherently inefficient and detrimental to maximal value extraction from the lives of individuals and humanity as a whole.
if you code then easiest analogy i can think of is that people tend to optimise for a certain wait time on average rather than always have cpu time available exactly when you need it.this is like - everyone should shoot to be at a meeting / event within a certain time frame that reflect the length of time this event is going to block them out for, how far it deviates from their planned activities and how much noticed they had.
If everyone is sometimes late then many more important things will get done much faster as people didn't just drop what they were doing to be on time.
rather than get upset by lateness I try to just never ask for people to be anywhere any given time..and if i am asking them then i think about how much extra time it takes out of their life to do it exactly when i asked (not 5 mins after or before - as both cause problems).
I also factor into these considerations that time is an abstract concept - so humans will never really give a hoot what it has to say, outcomes matter. i have never met an "always on time" person that doesn't spend way to much pointless time checking the time and thinking about the time... much like the ridiculous lengths you have to go to when programming to stop processing something at the correct time (e.g. truly deterministic control systems or games with a strong commitment to never drop a frame but carry out tasks that take way more than a frame to do)
I occasionally miss a train or a flight and that is deliberate because I optimise for minimal unproductive time waiting. The train/plane will leave without me if I am not there.
However if people are persistently late to multi-attendee meetings it increases total wait time over all the attendees which is not optimal for the group.
The more people are present and the less possible it is to start without them, the more wait time is being introduced by any person's lateness. Of course, there are far too many meetings with far too many people but that is a separate problem.
If someone just needs to chat with me at some point online or at my desk if in the office, we will usually agree a vague time slot as that is a 2 sided problem only and I can work on other things until they arrive. If they ask me to meet in a particular place where I cannot work while in a wait-state, I expect them to be on time.
