We are glued to our devices 24/7 and each device displays the time of day. Yet few of us arrive reliably on time for even the most critical appointments: We are so busy commuting, working and multitasking that when we arrive 10 minutes late we consider ourselves ‘on time.’

Punctuality, it seems, is a lost art, an old-fashioned idea that many businesspeople seem to have forgotten. Still, arriving on time remains the best way to be considered professional and in control.

As noted in a ProlificLiving.com post, “The Importance of Being Punctual,” being late:

• does not make you an important or special person. Whoever you are doesn’t reserve you the right to be late.
• once or twice in your life may be unavoidable but being late consistently makes you unreliable.
• says you clearly do not respect the other person’s time, only yours.
• affects your boss’s impression of you and damages your upward mobility at the company.
• consistently implies you are rude and lack all consideration and respect for the other person as well as for the commitment you made.

The writer adds “Your apologies for being late, however profuse and sincere, do not excuse the tardy. Your reasons for being late insult the other person’s intelligence.”

Even the great entrepreneur Richard Branson concludes that punctuality is important in business and life.

“Being on time is respectful to your hosts and also means you can effectively manage your day,” Branson says. “Once you get behind, it is hard to catch back up again. Being punctual doesn’t mean rushing around the whole time. I always find the time to exercise and to spend time with my loved ones. It simply means organizing your time effectively.”

I was once late for every appointment. But perhaps the only New Year’s resolution I’ve ever kept was to become punctual, no matter the cost.

Now I plan ahead (using the calendar synced on my devices) and arrive early so that I can collect my thoughts, respond to emails and have a few precious moments to breathe.

Branson says being on time doesn’t necessarily mean working to a strict, rigid schedule. Instead, it means that we must effectively delegate, be unfailingly organized and communicate clearly. Being flexible and being punctual, then, aren’t mutually exclusive.

If you can be both, Branson says, you and your business will thrive.

English may be one of the world’s most difficult languages. Given that fact, confusion about grammar, punctuation and spelling is to be expected.

That’s why we have The Associated Press Stylebook, Webster’s New World Dictionary, The Elements of Style, Roget’s Thesaurus and their online iterations. Problems occur when writers and their editors ignore these easy-to-use resources.

Fact is if you write emails, letters or reports (or deliver speeches or make presentations) it’s important to have mastered your native language and all of its weird nuances.

Thanks in part to my Catholic-school roots, grammatical and punctuation errors in speech and print irritate me to the extreme. They happen all the time: Poorly worded newscasts read by people who should know better; expensive signs that flash punctuation errors; misused words in newspapers and magazines, despite their paid proofreaders. And don’t get me started on menus!

My fourth-grade teacher Sister St. John-of-the-Cross is rolling in her grave.

The humorist “Weird Al” Yankovic offers his unique take on grammar and punctuation in a recently released song, “Word Crimes,” based on Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” that mocks common errors.

“To learn some grammar/Now, did I stammer
Work on that grammar
“You should know when ‘It’s ‘less’ or it’s ‘fewer’
Like people who were never/Raised in a sewer”

Even the pros get confused, which is why the Columbia Journalism Review published a recent column, “Plural Problems,” reminding professional writers and editors that merely adding an ‘s’ to something doesn’t make it a proper plural.

CJR noted that words already ending in ‘s,’ such as grass, require ‘es’ to make ‘grasses.’ Words that end in ‘o,’ like ‘buffalo,’ require ‘es’ to make ‘buffaloes.’ And words that end in ‘f,’ like ‘leaf,’ require you to change the ‘f’ to ‘v’ and add ‘es,’ to make ‘leaves.” And so on.

If that weren’t enough to muddle your brain, consider apostrophes. Mark Nichol, writing recently in PR Daily, notes that erroneous use of this punctuation mark is widespread.

Plurals, pronouns, separate and shared possession and possessive forms of surnames are just the beginning. Nichols notes, “Possessive nouns (such as ‘theirs’ and ‘yours’) never include an apostrophe. The possessive pronoun ‘its’ does not take a pronoun; the contraction ‘it’s’ (meaning ‘it is’) does.”

Yes, writing and speaking proper English is difficult, but “Weird Al” warns us: “Don’t be a moron/You’d better slow down/And use the right pronoun/Show the world you’re no clown.”  Watch the video, Word Crimes.