Cultivating the habit of punctuality should be a key concern for everybody and with more emphasis on the students. Time and tide they say, wait for nobody. When a student has good control of time, success becomes a sure story.

Punctuality is the attribute of being able to complete a required task or execute an assignment at a formerly designated time.

A punctual student understands the value and importance of time and how to prioritise any work and deliver at a predesignated time without any delay. William Shakespeare famously said, “Better three hours soon than a minute late”.

Punctuality helps the student to better create a balance between academic, social and family responsibilities. This type of student always makes his teachers and parents proud as is eager to take up new tasks with zeal.

The following are the reasons why you should teach students the importance of punctuality in life: 

1. It Breeds Success: The foremost importance of punctuality is, it is a major key to success. Punctuality helps students organize their life, plan ways to handle life hurdles and work towards achieving them while forming a habit of being on time.
2. Reduces Stress: If you have an examination and you are not adequately prepared but you decide to read overnight prior to the examination day so as to cover lots of topics. It gives you more stress and lesser chances of performing better than someone who started reading on time. Being on time and always prepared save you from last minute rush.
3. It Promotes Integrity in Children: Forming the habit of punctuality helps students to have strong moral principles and be able to say a word and stick to it. Such students submit their work on time or complete their assignments in due time.
4. Punctuality creates Discipline: It helps instil the will to do things on time rather than procrastinating. Every student seeking to excel in both academics and life must prioritise discipline and have better management of his time.
5. Enhances Productivity: When a student is always punctual in everything, productivity becomes inevitable. Being punctual and having a good plan will help achieve a lot within a small period of time.
6. Builds Self-Confidence: Being on time makes for a reliable person. It also evokes the feeling of performing well in all aspects and boosts self-confidence.
7. Promotes Learning: Being on time in school puts one in the best frame of mind for learning and understanding of what is being taught. It allows the student to settle down, mentally prepare and plan for the tasks ahead of the day.

Parents and teachers are at the forefront of instilling the habit of punctuality in students. Parents lay the foundation while teachers help to reinforce the habit.

They can easily achieve this by doing the following:

1. Leading by example, showing how it is done.
2. Parents can help students prepare well in advance for school time.
3. Introduce a set of rules and expectations.
4. Frequently remind and ensure completion of work on time.
5. Reward promptness.
6. Have consequences for lateness.

Punctual students can achieve whatever they set to achieve in life. However, there is no better time to implant the habit of punctuality in students than when they are still young and tender.

You can also read about How to Raise an Honest Child.