Why Timeliness Is Important
Jens O. Meiert, July 26, 2007 / September 27, 2007.
This entry is filed under User Experience.
Timeliness or punctuality might still be associated especially with Germans – I can’t tell if that’s justified –, but it’s all the more a nice stereotype since it deals with an important yet critical quality. So let me rephrase and at the same time emphasize the two crucial reasons for this statement:
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Unpunctuality wastes time and costs money. Obviously. Five people waiting for five minutes for one or more unpunctual people in a meeting means almost half an hour working time lost for the company. Let this happen several times a week, and these incidents will cost a fortune when seen per year. Consequently, unpunctuality must be considered unprofessional.
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Unpunctuality is disrespectful. To be honest, that’s the real motivation for this post, presumably since I yet recently read Seneca’s De Brevitate Vitae: Wasting other people’s time by being unpunctual is not just impolite, but bold. (That’s my conclusion, but I guess Seneca wouldn’t disagree.)
It concerns me that almost all of us use to have such a lax attitude when it comes to time and timeliness. While we certainly have the right to waste our time and lives, we’re never ever authorized to do that to other people. Yet we do, too often.
I don’t want to sound like a saint when it comes to timeliness, of course I’m not. However, I definitely started to focus even more on how I use my time, and I especially want to avoid costing other people’s time – and I encourage you to do the same. It won’t work all the time (…), but it’s a good goal.
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Comments
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On July 26, 2007, 14:30 CEST, Markus P. said:
This reminds me of the song “Gaudeamus igitur” …
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On July 26, 2007, 17:36 CEST, Jens Meiert said:
I don’t (know if I) know it, but it’s “interesting” that this song even made the “canonical” De Brevitate Vitae page at Wikipedia …
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On July 26, 2007, 19:39 CEST, Markus P. said:
Singing the first and the fourth strophe is – i would say – a kind of “tradition” at our school, especially for the pupil who has passed their final examination. Yes, I know it sounds really funny but I think every school has its own conventions.
