Rule #16. If you’re not five minutes early, you’re late

In a previous article I wrote about one of the first lessons in my military training which was learning to make our beds (Rule #4 - Make your bed). Another very early lesson was punctuality. We learned that if we were not five minutes early, we were late. This is how it worked.

Breakfast was planned to be served at 6am (0600). You started your day on ‘fives’ which meant that you were required to be assembled outside the Mess (where we ate) five minutes before the designated breakfast time (5 minutes to 6 or 0555). If you met the ‘fives’ requirement then you got to head into the mess at 0600 and have your breakfast. If you were late for ‘fives’, not only did you have to wait to enter the mess until five minutes after 0600 to make up for being late, but you were then placed on ‘tens’ for the next scheduled activity.

Say you were on ‘tens’ for lunch at midday (1200), but you didn’t muster until five minutes to midday (1155), then you got delayed heading into the mess for lunch until 1210 and you were also placed on ‘fifteens’ for the next event. With multiple activities throughout the day it was quite possible to be on ‘20s’ or ‘30s’ by the end of the day. If you got to 30s you were in trouble - dinner was only served for 30 minutes so it was quite possible that you would have to stand outside the mess for the majority of that time particularly if you were running late for 30s (the staff did ensure that we always got fed though).

As a stressed out cadet who has so many jobs to get done such as ironing uniforms, polishing boots and making beds, you soon realised that standing around for 10, 15, 20 or even 30 minutes waiting for the event to commence was a waste of your time. It was therefore a great motivator to be five minutes early for each event and stick to being on only ‘fives’ throughout the entire day.

Punctuality isn’t just about getting to the mess or to drill practice on time. Punctuality is critical for military training activities and especially in operational scenarios, hence why it is taught and drilled into all cadets from very early in their careers.

Being punctual is a value that has stayed with me for my 30+ year military career and in all aspects of my life. In fact, it is so ingrained in me that I still feel anxiety rising if I am not at the meeting, brief or even weekend social event five minutes early. Just imagine what it was like when we first had kids - trying to get them anywhere on time was extremely stressful for me!

I have had the discussion many times with people about whether or not my Rule #16 is a rational one now that I am older, wiser and more senior. And I have been challenged about whether it is appropriate to place the same expectations on others as I place on myself. Maybe, maybe not. But I do know that time is precious. We only have 1,440 minutes in each day and we have lots to fit into that time.

Personally I don’t want to be wasting my time waiting for others to arrive. I don’t want to take the morning off work to have the tradie who promised to be there at 8am show up at 1pm. I don’t want to book the first medical appointment for the day and yet still have to sit in the waiting room for 20 minutes for the doc to arrive. I’m sure they have their reasons for being late, but I wish I could ingrain in them the punctuality discipline that was ingrained in me as a 17 year old.

I don’t think I could ever stop living by Rule #16 even if I tried.