If you’re not a morning person then that’s often the excuse that you’ll use if you’re regularly late for anything that happens before noon. But, deep down, that’s all it is: an excuse. We’ve had alarm clocks for long enough now that you should know how they work and be able to set one. Ideally one that won’t stop just by pressing the snooze button!

But what else can you do to stop being late in the morning?

Work out the factors that are affecting your timings

Sometimes this can be as simple as realising that you can’t burn the candle at both ends and that you should go to bed earlier.

Sometimes it can be other factors but most of them will almost certainly boil down to getting a good night’s rest.

If that’s the case, make sure you go to bed at roughly the same time each night – we’re creatures of habit and that will help your mind to “know” that it’s time to go to sleep.

Whatever the factors are that affect why you are always late in the mornings, jot them down and give them a score. The exact score for each item doesn’t matter but it will give you an idea where the biggest problems are that are affecting your punctuality.

Once you know those, you can move on to the next item:

Work on one factor first

It’s much easier to concentrate on one area than many.

Don’t worry too much about which factor you’ve chosen although I’d suggest that you leave the bigger problems until later as they can seem daunting and it’s better to have a minor success on a smaller factor than a dismal failure on a larger one. The success will help push you forward and tackle the other areas that are causing you to be late.

Do some simple things first

Alarm clocks really are useful.

But the snooze button is often just taunting you to press it and you’ve managed once or twice before to reduce the amount of time it takes you to get out of the house.

Plugging the alarm clock into a different socket or putting your phone further away from your bed (if you use your phone as your alarm) could make the difference. If you have to get out of bed to stop the noise, make a conscious effort to stay out of bed and start your morning procedures such as cleaning your teeth,

Getting things ready the night before could be another useful step to helping stop you being late in the mornings.

Setting out the clothes you are going to wear, preparing your packed lunch if you take one with you to work, that kind of thing.

Anything that shaves some time off the morning rush – so long as you don’t use the preparation you’ve done as an excuse to have a bit more of a lie in.

Maybe it’s worth enlisting the help of a friend – so long as you don’t set your phone on silent overnight you could arrange for them to call you at a specified time to check up on your readiness for the day.