5TH MEETING: PUNCTUALITY (READINGS)

Punctuality is being at an appointed location at the appointed time. Several nationalities are known to be punctual like the Americans and Japanese. To add among the list are the Germans. An invitation for 4 pm means EXACTLY 4 pm. Not 15 minutes earlier and not 10 minutes later. Fashionably late is not a German custom (autrata.com. Behavioral norms in Germany.htm).

In our country, perhaps you have heard the term “Filipino Time”. In the vernacular, Filipino time connotes lateness or tardiness. It is coming late for an appointment, class schedules or work reporting. It is failure to submit requirements and projects on given time. It is very common in schools, wherein students come late class, unprepared and with insufficient or totally no projects or requirements to present to their professors. It is also apparent in some service offices where loads file up, and transactions delay. We seem to have the attitude to procrastinate/delay things which we could already do. Just like at home, sometimes Meralco has to remind us to settle our bills through disconnection notice. Many are accustom to last minute attitude: paying taxes and other obligations during the last day.

The culture can influence tardiness. According to Robert Levine, a social psychologist, (as cited by Surowiecki, 2004), cultures can be divided into those which live on “event time”, where events are allowed to dictate people’s schedule, and those which live on “clock time”, where people’s schedules dictate events. In a society where everyone is always late, it becomes rational to be late. And the biggest problem would be according to Franklin Jones, is that there’s nobody to appreciate punctuality. Therefore, our individual practices and upbringing, shaped up by our culture, influence our concept and value of time. Tardiness will always be a practice unless we change our mindset. And for us to instill the virtue of punctuality, we need to individually adapt a “clock time” culture, we have to set our priorities and schedules.

Addressing tardiness is not only a school or company issue. In fact, it became a national issue in Ecuador, wherein the country embarked a national campaign against lateness to combat against Ecuadorians’ notoriously cavalier attitude toward time. At high noon of October 1, 2004, the citizens of Ecuador did something they never dreamed possible: they synchronized their watches. But by taking on tardiness Ecuador’s citizens are telling us something else: culture is what you do, not who you are.

There are several reasons we can give to excuse ourselves from coming late or not meeting deadlines: heavy traffic jam, too many work requirements to do, problems, etc. Sometimes, we even blame others for our own fault like the drivers, professors, peers and family members. Tardiness simply feeds on itself. We don’t need a national campaign to address tardiness. We just need to need to have a sheer determination to stick to our schedule and look for ways to get ahead of it.

Abstraction
The greatest single factor determining academic success is time management (Archer, 1991). In order to manage time effectively, a student must have his or her life well organized, have some clearly defined goals and priorities, and have a realistic sense of personal needs and priorities. The college environment contains many elements that make good time management difficult. The primary challenge is in effectively organizing and allocating time to a great number of academic and other activities

Two types of time scheduling are crucial for college students: semester long planning and weekly planning (Archer, 1991). For semester long planning, every student needs a calendar of each term that show when major papers, tests, and other assignments are due. Weekly planning requires a system that allows a student to accomplish specific tasks within deadlines. Two general systems seem to work best: a weekly schedule by the hour or a list system with things to do generate at the beginning of everyday.