16 chronically late people explain why they can't ever be on time.

There are two kinds of people in this world: people who are on time and people who, no matter what, will always be late...

Late people will blame traffic, the weather, their mood that day, Mercury in retrograde, or anything other than the fact that they simply did not leave on time. On time people will blame the late person for disrespecting their time. And then, of course, there are early people who...they need to chill out. Life is too short to be early, ok?

So, when a Reddit user asked, 'People who are always late, why don't you just leave earlier?' people who can't seem to be on time were ready to reveal the truth. Why can't everyone function around the unpredictable clock in my head? Time isn't linear anyway, right?

1.

Me: Ok I've got the car packed up and the dogs have been outside so if we leave right now we should be on time for this previously scheduled event that we've known about for weeks.

My Husband: Ok cool I just have to hop in the shower... - Hopeless_Ramentic

2.

I used to have bad social anxiety. It's a lot better now but at social gatherings I wanted to make sure I wasn't the first or second to arrive so I didn't have to make an awkward 1 on 1 conversation so I arrived a few minutes late always so I could guarantee there'd already be people there. - BurpYoshi

3.

I used to be late a lot. The reason is not that I was trying to be late, but that it felt pointless to be early so I always tried to arrive exactly on time, and inevitably things would happen. In my experience the only way not to be late is to try to be early. - Glorious-Ignorance

4.

I always try to get the 'One more thing' done before leaving the house...water the plants, do a few dishes, clear off the coffee table, etc. Its a compulsion thing. I know its rude. I'm working on it. - teejaysaz

5.

I can arrive on time...If you want me to arrive on time with everything I need that's impossible - jjsquish

6.

I'm convinced somewhere between my front door and my car door there is a time paradox where 10 minutes simply vanish from existence. - Stoutyeoman

7.

I arrive precisely when I mean to. - RingGiver

8.

I’m a 5-minutes late to stuff person. I consider this within the margin of “on time” if it’s a social occasion. My friends for some reason all tend to be the half-hour+ late type. It’s never bothered me, I always have a book and enjoy my own company.

For dinner parties I usually plan to have dinner ready about 20-30 mins after the start time. This gives stragglers time to show up, a chance for people to chat and grab canapés, and for me to squirrel away any flowers or hostess gifts. - DelsMagicFishies

9.

I'm too optimistic. Always thinking about having enough time to do whatever I'll do but then I realize that it takes more time than expected. Even doing routine activities that I know how much time take, I'm still thinking that next time I'll be able to do it faster... and wrong again. - Jorcora

10.

Procrastination and social anxiety. Also I sleep super deep, which is good because I don't wake up at night. But bad because I cannot wake up at the morning no matter what. If I have to wake up before 9am for something, I'm gonna be late for sure. - Sotyka94

11.

I used to be late all time, because as someone said, I totally underestimate the required time to get ready. One day, I realized that the stress due to my lack of organization was purely my fault and that I was wasting other people time. Now, I’m almost always on time. Stress relief and more reliable.

How did I do? I note everything in my phone calendar, with alerts before events. I don’t have to remind anything: phone alert when I need to get ready, with a note if I need to take documents, or whatever, then another alert when I need to leave. It might sound like a heavy process, but it is sooooo confortable. I just need to trust my old self. - TagadaPouetPouet

12.

One of the biggest things in my opinion is they don't account for all the 'mini-steps' a certain task takes. For example, they'll think 'Having breakfast will only take me 10 minutes' because they are only thinking about the act of eating the cereal.

However, they do not account for needing to go to the kitchen, getting everything ready, putting milk back in the fridge, etc. That's +5 minutes. So if they have 5 steps to get ready and each step has a hidden +5 minutes, suddenly they're almost a half hour behind. - jvsmine07

13.

I don't know how it is for other people, but I consistently underestimate the amount of time it will take to get ready, get somewhere, etc. I think, 'Oh, I just need to get dressed and brush my teeth, then I can go.

It'll take me 5 minutes, so I can wait to do that until 5 minutes before I have to leave.' But then it takes 7 minutes, plus the time it takes me to put on my coat and grab breakfast as I'm walking out the door, and bam, I'm late. - Witty_Bend_3913

14.

Because I don't actually want to go - ipakookapi

15.

I used to wake up at 7:35 need to be out the door at 7:50, not wasting a minute of sleep - Artistic_Aide46

16.

I had a guy that used to work for me that always showed up 30 minutes late (At 8:30 instead of 8:00). I told him fine, your shift officially starts at 8:30 from here on hoping he’d be on time and I wouldn’t have to write him up. He then proceeded to show up at 9:00 everyday. - Actuaryba