If I had a dime for every time a baby boomer said, “It’s better to be an hour early than a minute late,” I would be rich. This familiar saying echoes Shakespeare’s line, “Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.” In the Bard’s time, however, keeping time was far less precise than it is today. Rather than tracking minutes and seconds, people relied on sundials and hourglasses to measure the passing hours.
Boomers did not grow up with GPS-synchronized wristwatches and clock radios, and because people’s timepieces were often out of sync, they developed a habit of arriving early to avoid being late.
Today everyone is running on GPS time, and there is no reason to arrive early for a doctor’s appointment, a dinner date, or any other occasion.
Although punctuality is a virtue, arriving too early can be an inconvenience today. Arriving too early can cause undue stress on family, colleagues, and medical providers.
I am a boomer, but my motto is that it is better to arrive a minute early than a minute late. I do not want to create awkwardness by showing up an hour early for a family dinner or a medical appointment.
I am flexible, but many boomers are set in their ways and unlikely to change to accommodate younger people. Younger folks would be well-advised to tell them an event starts an hour later than it actually does.
