“Early is on time, on time is late and late is unacceptable.” 

Why have we normalized this saying? I don’t understand the trend of needing to be 15 minutes early everywhere. I’ve always figured it was kind of a senseless saying, but as I become exposed to the business world, I feel surrounded by this early bird lifestyle more and more.  

I blame the emerging hustle culture in both the professional and personal aspects of people’s lives. Everyone is so preoccupied with making the most spotless impression that it’s driven people to compulsively obsess over being the most perfect. Whether it’s whoever’s the most accomplished, most professional or most knowledgeable, the early bird phenomenon is definitely caused by this hyper-perfectionism. Being late is part of human nature. And outside of being late, I truly don’t believe I should have to beat myself up just because I am arriving somewhere at the time I’m literally being told to arrive. 

Plus, with the rise of technology like texts, calls, Find My, Life360 and more, we’ve all become hyper-sensitive to being on time to events. It’s now so easy to see others’ ETA and whereabouts that people have become oversensitive to being just slightly late. It’s all just unnecessary. It’s okay to have to wait a couple of minutes for a friend to show up; I promise the world won’t end as you know it when your meeting starts two minutes later than it should. You’ll be fine. 

Also, I feel I must state the obvious: if there is a specific time to get somewhere, shouldn’t that be the time we arrive? Because otherwise the event itself should be listed as the time 15 minutes before. Has this concept dissipated from all our minds? 

I understand what the idea of being early is going for –– professionalism and timeliness –– and truly, I respect it, but I feel that it encroaches on the concepts of scheduling and planning. Without trying to sound dramatic, it undermines the very idea of our timing system if we have to plan to get everywhere 15 minutes early. It’s unrealistic and much too demanding.  

If it were up to me, I’d normalize the standard clock again. Bring back being on time.