We've all been in the same situation at one time or another: we're late for work or a business appointment and in a terrible rush. We run around like headless chickens, throw on the first thing we see in the wardrobe, skip breakfast and make a mad dash for the car, and this is when the real trouble starts.
When you're running late, you will take more chances whilst driving to try and make up some time. Firstly, you will drive faster; you will ignore speed limits by roughly five to ten miles per hour. Traffic lights will become a challenge - green light - great; amber light - not so good but you'll risk going through it anyway; red light - stop, unless there are no police or traffic cameras around; to you it's worth the risk if you think you can get away with it.
So, eventually you arrive at your destination and if luck was with you no-one was killed or injured as a result of your driving and you settle down to work, happy in the knowledge that what started as being thirty minutes late ended up being reduced to only twenty minutes late. Yes, you made up about ten minutes but possibly incurred a speeding fine or two in the process; which begs the question: was it worth it?
You will inevitably moan and whine about the injustice of it all and try to think of some mitigating circumstances that you can put before a judge - and yet you could have avoided all the trouble by taking one easy single course of action that guarantees you won't have to pay a speeding fine - ever.
It is simply - Don’t speed!
If for whatever reason you are running late by say twenty to thirty minutes, it will be almost impossible to make the time up. The laws of physics, nature or whatever will not allow you to condense nearly half an hour into a couple of minutes; and you certainly can't reverse time back to where you want it.
Therefore, if you're late for a meeting - phone ahead and inform someone of the delay. So what if you're late for work, do some extra time during the day to make it up - it will work out a lot cheaper for you and a lot less dangerous for other road-users; and you stand a better chance of arriving in one piece.
Author:
I am a professional proofreader of hard copy items and website copy. I also write web copy and occasionally accept small copy-editing assignments.
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