Welcome back. I'm Dr. Ellen Hendrickson and every week I'll help you meet life's

challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment.

We'll use the best of psychology to help you be happy, healthy, and most importantly,

yourself.

We all have a horror story about being late. Arriving at a wedding just as the bride and groom are running off in a shower of birdseed,

or picking up your panicked child at an otherwise empty field after baseball practice.

Being late even shows up in our nightmares, who hasn't woken up in a sweat from a late for a final exam dream. Now,

savvy psychologist listener, Waukein Garzara of Guatemala City, emailed me for tips to

improve his punctuality and I know that he is not alone.

So, before you're late for your next very important date, consider these 10 tips for being right on time.

Tip number one, 10 tips for being right on time.

Tip number one, re-estimate how much time you think things will take.

Call it sunny optimism or delusional thinking, but many of us underestimate how long tasks will take.

So try taking your original estimate and add at least 25 to 50 percent more time.

The bigger the task or the longer the travel time, the more wiggle room you have to build in.

For example, I found out the hard way that writing a grant takes anywhere from 3 to 8 times as long as I originally planned.

So estimate your own tasks, small or gargantuan, accordingly.

Tip number two, account for transition activities like traffic, getting kids out of the house, you have to poo now, and the big one-two punch, parking and walking.

These are the mundane tasks that stealthily and consistently throw off our estimates.

Too often we look up the drive time on Google Maps and take their estimate as gold.

Instead, consider bookending that estimate with extra time to find

your kids other shoe and feed the parking meter. It seems obvious, but it's not. Try it and watch your life change.

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