Having a problem with your alarm clock not going off or hitting the snooze button too often? Being on time is extremely important, no matter where you work. If you're just out of school and new to a career, you should know that showing up late is something everyone is likely to notice, including your manager. If your excuse is, “My alarm didn't go off” (insert game show buzzer here) that's not going to work for you. Here are some tips to help you wake up on time.
Remember the time?
You might recall, on January 1, 2011, a leading cell phone company discovered there was a “glitch” in the programming of one of their phones, causing the alarm to cancel when the new year began. Literally thousands of people were late to—well, everything. People missed flights, meetings, and a whole lot of people were late to work.1 That’s one example of why you shouldn’t rely on your cell phone as your only alarm clock.
The back-up plan.
One helpful and rather effective solution is using two alarm clocks. The important thing to remember is that one of your alarms needs to run off of batteries. Invest in a plug-in alarm clock with a battery backup. You can find them at any big box retailer. Here's the most important step: put a battery in it. Between your cell phone and a backup alarm clock with a battery, your chances of oversleeping or falling victim to a technical malfunction are greatly reduced.
Stagger the times.
If both of your alarms go off at the same time there’s a slight chance you might turn both of them off in your sleepy stupor. By staggering the times by a few minutes, there’s a better chance you’ll be a little more awake and not make an early morning mistake.
Away from the bed.
Try moving your backup alarm away from your bed so that you have to get up to turn it off. This can be an effective trick to force yourself to get your day started more quickly, instead of hitting the snooze button several times.
Eventually one day, the power will go out in the middle of the night, maybe because of a storm. And someone will be late to work the next day. Don't let it be you!
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