Show up. Care. Repeat.

My Pet Peeves, how anyone can avoid some stress & confusion

I use military time format only. For example: "21:30" or "13:12". In many languages there are a few or sometimes even a myriad of ways to say, and more importantly write, a time in a way that is mildly -or even very- ambiguous.

The amount of appointments that went amiss and the many hours of my (and other people's) life I have wasted before I started using this time format, can not be overstated. Nobody likes waiting, missed connections or confusion.

I prefer to avoid all those issues by always using military time. Usually I check, in a kind way, what others mean when they use a different format and I am not a 100% sure what time we are talking about.

A Googlemaps (or more private map) link and a complete, exact address, I always use at least one of those, and ideally both. Before I did this, for all appointments and postage purposes (no Googlemaps here of course), I ran into so many issues:

All easily and utterly avoidable.

In terms of maps, addresses and directions, I have known people that would almost never include a postal code. Even though in Berlin and other cities sometimes the exact same street name and door number exist 4 to ca. 10 times, with the places in question often being 3 to 10 km apart,.. Always using a postal code totally precludes this becoming an issue.

"Just meet me at the Döner shop close to the library." There are 1000s of Döner shops in Berlin, many libraries. Even if they tell you the street as well, there may be ca. 3 Döner shops in close proximity.

Why not look at the name and address of the specific Döner shop and send that, or a map point of the place? These 15 seconds of effort up front may save you both minutes or even half an hour.

I once went on a spontaneous first date, late at night during one of the coldest nights of the year in The Hague. She told me to meet her: "on the old bridge on XX-street at 01:15". 40 Minutes later I got home and she send me a message that she was cold, furious and sad because: "You stood me up! And I stood in the cold for ages!"

I was so confused, because I thought she had done that exact thing to me. Turns out, there were two old bridges, about a 100 meters from each other, both on said street. And for a reason I do not remember, one or both of us could not use our phone until we got home. Map point. Exact address, with a nr. and not a vague-ish descriptor. = problem solved. In the end we did briefly date after, but this initial confusion was not the best start.

In every country and sometimes region there are specific (additional) postal and address customs that, if ignored or left out, can create issues. In Spain, it is adding both the floor and door nr. since there are few places with other apartment designations nor names on the outside bells. In Berlin on the other hand, you absolutely need to include a last name that is on the outside doorbell. In US, other orders of address details and (additional) designations are common.