Using a timeline to calculate how long it will take to get to work

Speaker: I'm getting ready for my first day on an apprenticeship with a local plumbing company.

It hasn't been easy getting a placement lined up and loads of my mates are still looking, so I want to make sure I make a good impression.

Tomorrow is my first day on the job, and I'm taking the advice of all the tutors at my college and planning my journey to make sure I get there in good time.

The start time on the job is 07:30, but it's a good rule of thumb to plan your journeys to arrive 15 minutes before any appointment, just in case things don't go according to plan.

I'm going to get a train there, so I'll need to work out what train to get and what time to leave home to make it to the train station on time.

I've always found working out time hard, but recently I've been learning new ways to help me make more sense of it.

I've found that the best way for me is to draw things out with diagrams.

So if I know I need to be somewhere by 07:15, then I can use a timeline to count back from then and find out when I've got to leave the house.

I'll show you what I mean.

Speaker: I'm planning on arriving at the company for 7:15, so I'm going to try and draw myself a timeline, from then, that works back to when I leave the house.

Now, according to online maps, the distance from the headquarters to the train station takes 5 minutes to walk.

So I'll take 5 minutes away from 7:15 to get to 7:10.

That's the latest time I need the train to arrive at the station.

Now we all know trains don't always run on time, which means I need to allow myself, say 10 minutes on my timeline, just in case of delays.

So, I'll take another 10 minutes from 7:10am and that leaves me at 7am.

There is a train that arrives at the station for 7am so I really want to be on that one.

Right, let's see. It leaves my station for 6:36am.

Now before I get on the train, I need to get the ticket from the machine and to find the platform, so I want to allow myself 15 minutes to do that.

That means I need to count back 15 minutes from 6.36am to work out what time I need to be at the station.

So, I'll start by taking off 5 minutes which brings me to 6:31 and then that leaves me 10 minutes to bring me to me to 6:21 - call it 6:20.

So that's what time I need to be at the station, then: 20 past 6.

Speaker: So I know I need to be at the station for 20 past 6.

Now I need to think about my journey to the train station.

I do this journey every day and I know I can walk it in exactly 8 minutes.

So if I take 8 from 20, that's 12.

So there you go, I've got to leave here at 6:12am to make it to the train station on time.

But since it's my first day, I think I'll play it safe and leave here for 6:10.

So all that's left do to is to set the alarm.

So if I'm leaving here at 10 past 6, then I'm going to need to set the alarm a half hour before that: that's 30 minutes.

So let's break this down. 6:10 take away 10 brings me to 6am and then that leaves 20 minutes to take away, which is 5:40am.

Right, I'd better set the alarm then.

5:40am. It's going to be painful!