Blogocentric Formulations

Shakespearean Punctuality

Day 3250 ▼

"Better three hours too early then a minute too late. " William Shakespeare Write about this quote in your Blog entry today.

"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late" from Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is often cited when people are looking for quotes about punctuality. And, depending on the context, it definitely makes sense. You wouldn't want to be a minute too late to board an international flight, or defuse a bomb. Although I suspect that it probably would't be as big a deal for something like showing up to an event you really don't want to attend. For situations that don't involve anything critical, I actually think most people would prefer to be a minute late rather than being three hours early.

I am not most people.

I hate being late. It drives me crazy when I'm late to something, even if it's a casual get-together or something where punctuality isn't expected. If I say I'm going to be somewhere at 6:00 p.m., I do not want to get there at 6:01 p.m. or 6:02 p.m. When it is for something important, I will 100% inconvenience myself by arriving way early and hanging around rather than taking the chance of arriving late.

For example, I live in the Greater Los Angeles area, where traffic is always unpredictable. The only predictable thing about it, in fact, is that it's almost always bad. And when I have something like a job interview, even though it would be perfectly acceptable to walk into the room a single minute late, I would rather drive there hours early, and take the chance of arriving hours early and killing time waiting in my car or hanging out at a local coffeeshop just down the street than chance that I'll be stuck in traffic.

So, yes, I deeply identify with Shakespeare's "better three hours too soon than a minute too late" line from his play. It's pretty much how I've dealt with punctuality my entire life, even for occasions where I think other people would be more inclined to be a minute late.