Punctuality Behavior Change Paper

PSYC 305-002: Learning and Behavior

Towson University

November 26, 2021

Dr. Michaloski
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Behavior Description

I want to change my punctuality- or lack of punctuality to be precise. Lately, I have been

arriving late to events, classes, etc. without understanding why. Before this semester I was not

like this. I’ve tried many things to change my tardiness- which helped a little bit- but I still find

myself constantly running out of time and rushing to get to places in a suitable amount of time. I

see this with planning out events, my morning routine to go to school in the morning, and doing

homework assignments. My sense of urgency is skewed and my sense of time is distorted. I

believe I have a certain amount of time to do the task(s) but I end up late and the tasks half

finished. Therefore, I want to change my tardiness into punctuality for events.

How It Started

I believe it started at the beginning of this semester. Due to college being in person and

transferring to Towson in the same semester (longer commute), I had to adjust to a new schedule.

Within my life, there are several rigid structures that must be maintained due to my

responsibilities. I have school in the morning, work at night, and then two pets to take care of. If

the schedule is not maintained or timed properly, I will be late due to the inability to skip said

tasks. I think I had gone lax on my punctuality due to certain mental health issues along with

trying to balance everything within my schedule. Talking to my professors and boss allowed

them to be more understanding so I wouldn’t be as stressed to leave the house. Essentially, this

condoned the action. As time went on, and my tardiness remained unpunished, the less I stressed

about the wrongness of my actions and viewed it as simply normal. Others that arrived late only

fueled the habit- as they made my tardiness feel more accepted (since others were doing it, too).

Operant conditioning and observational learning both played a hand in condoning and furthering

my tardiness habit- and, therefore, my current uncooperative habits.

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I've already postulated that my issue now is a cluster of previous issues coming together.

I've always had an issue with getting out of bed. This can be an issue with my sleep schedule and

general discipline with my bedtime/wake up routine. So far within my life, I haven't had issues

with my punctuality despite this so I assume that there's another issue at work here. For some

reason, my brain comprehends time differently. Tasks that I think will take a certain amount of

time, take longer. Time slips by and before I know it, I'm running late. In the morning, if I'm

running late to school, I still have to walk my dog- Buddy. This is another "fixed" part of my

routine; since I have to work right after school due to financial issues, I have to make sure Buddy

is okay before I leave for the day. I've tried waking up earlier, but I seem to be unable to get out

of bed until I absolutely have to. The sleep issue could be a result of classical conditioning:

waking up has been paired with a neutral stimulus (alarm noise) which then should lead me to

wake up, but overtime it has led to sleeping more. So now my alarm is ineffective at waking me

up. Lastly, another issue I have noticed is that when I am on time, I take longer to do my tasks

(because I am not rushing), which then cause me to be late due to my time perception issues.

Reinforcement

Mostly, my gradual decline into tardiness started because of operant conditioning. The

more my tardiness actions remained unpunished (positively or negatively), the more the actions

were repeated (and increased) to, also, be met with equally no resistance, and my punctuality

decreased. In fact, seeing others be late and seeing my professors' positive reactions to my

lateness, only reinforced my current habits (observational learning).

My alarm system has been adjusted several times to no avail. Since I set up many alarms

to help guide me through my morning routine, I will not wake up to the first one, only to the one

that I absolutely have to get up to. This leaves me short on time and if my tasks get delayed or I

get side tracked, it’s almost impossible to be on time. Another issue with my alarms is how I’ve
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conditioned myself to be unaffected by it. Even if I change up the alarm tone, I will still sleep

through it and/or hit snooze since I know there are more alarms that will wake me up. This sense

of security is what leads me to fail but the anxiety of not having a safety net, also, causes me to

fail. So far, I have been able to maintain stellar performances in my classes and at work. My

tardiness has not yet impacted other’s perceptions of me or impacted my work. Therefore, my

tardiness has essentially gone unnoticed and, therefore, reinforced by not being specifically

punished within my life. I do not want it to start impacting my life, hence why I am trying to

solve this issue before it spirals and gets out of hand.

Relevant Literature

The first article I found is the “Clinical Implications of the Perception of Time in

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)”. This explains the dysregulation of how those

with ADHD perceive time and how it impacts their cognitive function. Ptacek (2019) says that

the perception of time is interdependent on several other factors: time sequencing, time

reproduction, and time processing- the ability to record and estimate how much time is passing.

ADHD’s main symptoms stem from executive dysfunction (Ptacek, 2019). Part of this

dysregulation can lead certain individuals to have issues with time processing. ADHD is a broad

spectrum and every individual will have different deficiencies. Within the article, they did

studies and experiments on those with ADHD using time estimation- the ability to state an

approximate amount of time passed without using a watch or a timer. Those with ADHD did

significantly worse in estimating time- grossly overestimating or minimizing the amount of time

necessary for a task (Ptacek, 2019).

Delaet (2010) discusses in their punctuality improvement article that one cannot be

optimistic about having extra time. Due to my incapacity to accurately measure time, tasks can

take longer than expected- or planned. As I discussed earlier, once I know that I am not running
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late, I take my time doing the tasks I need to do before leaving and get sidetracked more often-

since I have the “extra” time available to spare. This ends with me running late. Another key

point the article made that I feel is applicable to my life is that mediocre and/or habitual tasks do

not get actively perceived by the brain during daily processing (Dalaet, 2010). Therefore, it is

easy to misperceive how long a habitual task takes- or will take- and this leads to wasted time.

These little areas of time- “sinkholes” are being lost without being actively perceived due to their

minuteness in my life (Dalaet, 2010). Petting my dog, filling up my water bottle, using the

restroom, etc., all use up small amounts of time that add up and can be causing me to be late. 

The last article I found, merges how to be punctual while still being aware of cognitive

deficits. Haupt (2021) says that tardiness can be explained by a number of factors, including

specific personality traits and a lack of time management skills. Such as

attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and perfectionistic personality types. The perfectionist

personality type is more likely to be late due to them determined to get everything

right/completed before leaving (Haupt, 2021). I never thought about how my perfectionistic

tendencies are causing me to be late. Take, for example, my dog: I have to put back his leash and

harness in the exact spot it belongs, I have to feed him according to the schedule, and so on.

These take time that are not accounted for in my schedule because of how little time it takes-

however it adds up. These are examples of how my perfectionistic tendencies can lead to

sinkholes in my daily routine and cause my tardiness. Once figuring out how long it will take to

get somewhere, one should build in extra time to account for all these little “sinkholes” of time

(Haupt, 2021). Psychologically, people consistently underestimate how much time it will take to

reach their destination due to the small inconveniences that are needed outside of just driving-

i.e., traffic, finding a parking spot, walking to the entrance and so on (Haupt, 2021). All of these

transition activities are hard to keep track of, but building in extra time will help account for the
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time needed for them. Another issue I have is wasting time, I have a lack of time in my life in

general so I dislike being extremely early due to the fact that I am wasting that time that could’ve

gone to something else- such as homework assignments, taking care of my pets, cleaning my

house, etc. Haupt (2021) says a way to combat this for those with ADHD is to prepare a backup

plan of what you’ll do if you’re early. Lastly, something that will help me with my alarm clock

issue is envisioning what will happen if I am late (Haupt, 2021). This is what I have been using

lately to motivate me to get out of bed in the morning. It is effective. Envisioning how those will

perceive me if I am late and how I will feel about myself if I am late is a good motivator to

prevent being tardy.

Strategies for Change

The strategies that I will be using the change my behavior is to build in extra time within

my routine to account for these multiple time “sinkholes”. I tend to underestimate the commute

time of my drive to school and to get to an event, building in an extra 10 minutes on top of

everything will make sure that I get on time- or early. Going into this, my next strategy will to

build in things I can do if I am early or on the way to the event. This can be planning out my

schedule for the next day, reading my textbook (which are online), finishing my makeup, using

the restroom once I get there, and so on. I will have to work on my perfectionistic tendencies to

have everything be done before leaving the house so I can continue to work on those tasks on the

way to the event and/or once I get there. This will prevent my tardiness and improve my

punctuality because I would have showed up on time and/or with time to spare without causing

me to be behind on my tasks. I feel these two strategies in tandem will be very effective at

working with my personality and behavioral tendencies to better my punctuality. Lastly, I will

work on creative “false” deadlines that are slightly ahead of when its due so I can work on things
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earlier. If my issue is waiting till the last minute, the last minute according to the new deadline

will still be early. If I am running late according to the new schedule, I will still be slightly early.

References

Beth Ann DeLaet. (2010, November 27). Feeling late? Try these punctuality tips. Kalamazoo

Gazette (MI).

Haupt, A. (2021, August 16). Late for everything? Here are 7 tips to help you break the habit.

The Washington Post.

Ptacek, R., Weissenberger, S., Braaten, E., Klicperova-Baker, M., Goetz, M., Raboch, J., . . .

Stefano, G. B. (2019, May 26). Clinical Implications of the Perception of Time in

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A Review. Retrieved November 28,

2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6556068/