On Time from Two Perspectives

On Time?

Paxton Wall

"Early is on time, on time is late and late is unacceptable!" was a phrase coined by the author Eric Jerome Dickey. If you have an interview, you need to arrive around fifteen minutes early. If you have band practice, you should show some initiative and be ready about ten minutes beforehand. If you have a meeting, you should be present at least a few minutes prior to the starting time. Have you ever stopped to consider why you should be early to any event? What could possibly be so important that it requires you to show up earlier than the previously scheduled time? I believe the answer is nothing.

Time is a very valuable thing, as there’s only so much of it to go around. Why should anyone have to waste their own time showing up earlier than requested for a scheduled event? If it's necessary for you to show up earlier, shouldn’t the schedule reflect it? The starting time for something should be set with a proper amount of time allotted to finish.

Another problem with the mentality of showing up early is that not much really happens during the time before the scheduled starting time. The fact is, if you show up early to something, you’ll just end up sitting around and waiting for it to start.

On Time.

Gabriel Navarro

“Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable!” is a phrase coined by the author Eric Jerome Dickey. Have you ever shown up on time to something? Anything, have you walked into a class that starts at 12 o’clock at 12:00 on the dot. When you look around and see everyone sitting down at their desk with their binders out and the teachers standing prepared to lecture, did you think to yourself “wow am i glad I showed up on time”. Hopefully not, I would think you ran to your desk in embarrassment and rushed to get out all of your stuff so class can start.

Time is very valuable. Let's say you show up to a meeting. In this meeting you show up 15 minutes early. You not only impress the person you are trying to sell or propose something to, you get to meet them. Now, would that make you have a better or worse chance at guaranteeing your career is plausible?

When you are showing up just barely on time, what are you doing in that brief moment of free time? Are you maybe, bowling. Did you go to the park and grab a bite to eat in the 5 minutes you could have been there. If I had to guess you would most likely be sitting around doing nothing anyways, so why not show up on time, and by that I mean early.