Time management has nothing to do with when the workday starts—or when an activity within that day starts. A person's day could begin at 6 a.m. or at 7:30 or at 8 or at 9 and the person would still be late who has not seen that life is a bunch of jigsaw pieces that must fit together in deference for the existence of other jigsaw pieces in order for life to run smoothly. The pieces must lie down next to each other. Every time they overlap—even a smidgeon—or are stacked on top of each other, the direct result is various levels of chaos.
One must manage oneself in relation to time—choosing to fit in one's personal agenda timepiece into the world's timepiece. It is a perfectionistic refusal to let some things go (if they were initiated by oneself—by one's own plan/design) in favor of a prior larger world's design—in favor of other's fixed prior agendas or their time commitments.
Two things cannot occupy the same space. What you gain in making that last-minute food preparation when you really need to be out the door, you lose in toxic cortisol production. Every time your body is in hurry/panic mode, you lose. If you maintain a relentless perfectionism re: achieving your own goals no matter the cost, you can whip your body into trauma, day after day. Such a person may not be aware of it, but he/she chooses the cortisol.
Read more in our e-Book on Goal Setting and Time Management.
