Late fees, late penalties, late-night cramming. Lateness is just a tax you keep agreeing to pay.

Lateness is rarely free; it just bills you in pieces small enough to ignore. A fee here, a scramble there, a night of cramming that also costs you the next day. None of it looks like a decision, which is why it repeats. Added up across a year, the tax is far larger than being early ever was.

Add up what lateness has cost you this month in money, sleep and goodwill. Then take the deadline that bites hardest and move your start forward by a day. Paying the small cost up front is the whole trick.