If you’re so exhausted in the morning that you sleep until the last possible moment, it’s time to think about going to sleep earlier. Many people don’t get enough sleep, and sleep deprivation is a real drag on your happiness and health.

If you always try to answer one more email or put away one more load of laundry before you leave, here’s a way to outwit yourself: take a task that you can do when you reach your destination, and leave early. Tell yourself that you need that ten minutes on the other end to write that story or check those figures.

You may tell yourself it takes twenty minutes to get to work, but if it actually takes forty minutes, you’re going to be chronically late. Have you exactly identified the time by which you need to leave? People always think they have more time than they actually do.

Nothing is more annoying than searching for lost objects when you’re running late. Designate a place in your house for your key items, and put those things in that spot, every time. For example, keeps your house keys in the chest of drawers opposite your front door.

Your hubby can’t find his phone, your son can’t find his history book, so you’re late. As hard as it is to get yourself organised, it’s even harder to help other people get organised. Try setting up the “key things” place in your house. Prod your children to get their school stuff organized the night before and coax the outfit-changing types to pick their outfits the night before, too.

If you dread going to work that much, or you hate school so deeply, or wherever your destination might be, you’re giving yourself a clear signal that you need think about making a big change in your life.

You’re supposed to be someplace else, but you’re trapped in a meeting that’s going long. Sometimes, this is inevitable, but if you face this issue repeatedly, there’s probably an identifiable problem – and once you identify it, you can develop strategies to solve it — for example, sticking to an agenda or circulating information by email.