Ode to Back-up Alarms.

I almost missed today’s big events.

Really.

My husband had a work event that I was invited to — celebrating the recent acquisition of the company he’s a CTO at– and it was far away, so we stayed over at a hotel. It was nice not to have to drive home late, and also nice because he had to leave at 5 AM to go on a business trip for said company.

And I got to sleep in.

Until 7 AM.

I know, I know, the sheer luxury of it all! Considering I usually have to deal with my toes being tugged at 6 AM by a thirsty three year old or telling my eldest son that Wii came into the house by the grace of me, it’s also going to go by the grace of me, if HE KEEPS PLAYING IT AT THIS LEVEL AGAIN.

So relatively uninterrupted sleep until 7 AM is super-fantastic happy hour fabulous by my standards.

But I had to get up by 7 AM. No later.

Quick ring to the Hotel’s front desk to set a wake-up call.

Ready.

Not.

If I hadn’t gotten a wrong number at 6:45 AM, I would have never woken up.

They never called. Not at 7 AM, not at 7:30 AM.

I had to meet the trainer at the gym and I had a long drive through Boston’s morning rush-hour traffic, had I not woken up and missed my apt I would have been pissed.

When I was doing finanical PR and we had a deal being announced, I often set the alarm, ringed for a wake-up call AND had breakfast delivered. I never  was late and I was never rushed.

Back-up alarms are important. Not only do they mean you have confidence that you’ll be on time, and you sleep better if you’re really nervous, it also means you’re never going to feel rushed if you properly backed out your the time in your schedule.

Seems pretty trivial and obvious, but back-ups are key.

The more important it is, the more back-ups you need. And want.

Most important meeting of your life? Back-ups galore.

Nuclear power plant? Oh hell yes, there BETTER be a bucketful o’back-ups.

This morning only confirms it. Don’t leave it to chance.

Make sure you have your back-ups alarms in place.