A recent Randstad USA survey (Wall Street Journal, Nov. 13, 2007) found that 54% of respondents said that the poor time management skills of coworkers drove them nuts, second only to office gossip (60%).  Said differently, American workers are significantly ticked off by the number of people arriving late to meetings!

Psychologists have numerous reasons to account for people perpetually coming late to meetings, but that doesn't help get meetings back on track.  However, here is a trick that effectively managed the on-time arrival of a group of 40 volunteers.

While a member of my alma mater's Alumni Board of Directors, I couldn't understand why our quarterly meeting announcements always had the starting time listed as 7:07 pm.  When I asked the college's Alumni director about it, his simple response was: "You remembered the start time, and are here."

So next time, set your meeting for 10:07 am, or 11:07, or whatever.  See if it helps.