I arrive twenty minutes early for an appointment and spend the time sitting awkwardly outside. A friend arrives exactly on time and appears completely relaxed. I say I'm avoiding stress, but I've just moved the waiting into a different part of the day. How do you decide what buffer is genuinely useful versus needless extra time spent anticipating something?
Whether arriving very early is actually less stressful than arriving just on time
- ask-anything
- arriving
- very
- early
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6 replies
I think buffers are useful when they remove one kind of stress and don’t just create another. If the early arrival means you can park, find...
I think buffers are useful when they remove one kind of stress and don’t just create another. If the early arrival means you can park, find the place, and not rush through traffic, that’s different from standing on a sidewalk feeling silly for twenty minutes.
That’s how I think about it too. I arrive early for anything I’d hate to be late to, but not so early that I spend the whole wait getting annoyed at myself.
I have a soft rule that the buffer should be invisible. If I’m using it to handle parking or security or finding the right building, great....