People who are always late, what's going on? What is your reaction to people who are annoyed by your lateness?

1. I'm chronically underestimating how long it takes me to get ready, and to reach places once I'm out the door. I have a lot of guilt over it, to the point of having nightmares. When I absolutely need to be somewhere on time, I can do it, but the price is a lot of anxiety and stress. As for people, I text when I'm more than 5 min late, and apologize upon arriving. Thankfully in the circles I move in, they generally don't care.
   — marimo_is_chilling


2. Usually trying to fit too much into the time before I need to leave/be on time. Often plan to get there on time rather than early. And, usually embarrassed like "shit, I did it again"
   — Trashcancomic


3. im just not threatened enough financially to come to work on time.
   — WriterOfTheNightMan






4. I'm just incredibly forgetful and distracted, so even if I do make an effort to leave on time, I'll end up forgetting a bunch of things and delaying myself in the process.
   — I_LOVE_DIAPERS


5. I understand why they are annoyed and yet I can’t bring myself to be on time... it’s a matter of terrible time management skills... I always assume things will take less time than they actually do.
   — Ginandmilk87


6. I'm depressed and it's hard to find the motivation to do anything.
   — ryebow






7. I’m chronically late and I’ve always thought I just mismanage my time and underestimate the amount of time it will take me to get ready or to get somewhere (which is still definitely true). But I saw a video on reddit a few months back of an ADHD specialist giving a lecture (I have ADHD) and what he said made so much sense and helped me understand why I do it. He said that people with ADHD are a poor judge of “the future” and that, until the future becomes the present and is right there hitting you in the face, a mind like mine doesn’t feel like it (in this case, being somewhere at a certain time) needs to be dealt with.
   — veryferal


8. Anxiety and lack of motivation. Sometimes I'm physically tired and I'm dreading doing what I need to do so estimate the least amount of time it takes me to arrive somewhere, and I'm off by 5% most of the time.
   — kittenlover27


9. I used to be chronically late usually 30+ minutes. For example, if I had to leave at 6 to get to somewhere on time, I'd plan to get ready at 5:30 but due to general anxiety and procrastination, I usually wouldn't get ready until 15 minutes before. Then getting ready would always take longer because I'd always have something that would 'take a minute or two' that I just had to do. Eventually I'd leave at 6:30. My mom was the same way and still is. I was in a friend group where it was generally acceptable to be late 15 minutes and one friend would be just as late if not even later than I was. I never saw a reason to change even though it would always be on my New Years resolution list. I started a conscious effort to be on time and even strive to be early now. I was reading on another askReddit thread about what's the most annoying habit or something and a comment said being chronically late because even if you don't mean to, you are essentially disrespecting other people's time. It got much easier to be on time when I really got it through my head that if time is the most valuable thing, being late is hugely disrespectful to others. Also addressing the underlying anxiety that everything must be perfect helped.
   — secretlyfabulous






10. I don't have my shit together.
    — Stop_Sign


11. I have OCD. Before I was medicated, I would spend so long just making sure everything was right before I left. Check the bathroom plug to make sure my straightener was off. Check the mirror again and again to make sure my outfit looked ok. Inevitably change said outfit. Etc. It didn't matter how much time things took. I couldn't let myself leave until everything was just right. Now that I'm medicated, all of that is muted. I still have my off days where I get into my checking routines. But now my problem is mostly the opposite. I'm so carefree that I just don't care. I'd rather spend 10 extra mins snuggling with my son, or snooze in, or finish whatever I'm doing than be where I need to be on time. I'm sure there's a healthy balance, but Lord knows I haven't found it.
    — otterly--ridiculous


12. It's easy to get into the habit of operating based off a best-case scenario instead of a realistic scenario. Now, maybe your *average* time driving to work is 20 minutes, but *sometimes* there's less traffic and you hit the lights just right to get to work in 15 minutes. So you're sitting at your house 20 minutes before you're supposed to be at work, thinking to yourself "I don't have to leave right now, it 'should' only take me 15 minutes to get there". Of course, today you *do* have to stop for half of the red lights, and dammit if there isn't a train at the crossing, too, so while you *might* have been right on time leaving your house at the exact same time yesterday, today you're ten minutes late. It's not that you *mean* to be late ... it's just that you're not always conscious of the little gambles you take until they don't work out in your favor. Then when somebody calls you out on it, your brain immediately tells you "hey man, it wasn't your fault that train held up traffic and that other guy took too long to turn left and caused you to miss the light", when in reality if you'd just leave a couple of minutes early to allow for such variables like a responsible adult human, you'd be on time 99% of the time.
    — ElBiscuit






13. My internal concept of time is terrible. I can't estimate how long any task will take and I get too focused to remember to worry about how long it's taking me. So basically, inattention. When it's important I set timers.
    — youhavechosen


14. I have ADHD, which can be thought of as a time disorder. The little person in your head most people have is like a 5 year old kid in mine. I consciously know how long things take, but my innate sense of time is distorted.
    — chronogumbo


15. I just don't like doing stuff. Deadlines and schedules might seem good when I first commit, but my mood and willingness to cooperate are variable. It's a shitty and selfish thing to do to your friends though, so I've worked on it a lot. I'm not late, or no more than an infrequent ten minutes late now. If I want more time for me, I just make less plans.
    — COMMAND3RBAD4SS






16. I am a chronic late person who has gotten much better with time management (in terms of being on time). Throughout school I was able to be late and bang out the work no problem. It's not the same in the real world and didn't really get to me until I finished school. As for some saying it's a shitty habit. Yes it is, chronically late people need that wake up call. But a shitty person...I don't put myself in that boat. In school I could give a shit. But work does matter to me perhaps too much. I had and still have a case of high anxiety and a confidence problem. Still no excuse. One of my last employers basically gave up on me and we're really passive aggressive. Eventually I accepted that judgment. I am a shitty late person. My current employer took the high road and is intolerant of lateness and let me know several times. Eventually we had a talk he could see that I cared very much and how much my lateness bothered me. my lateness although still present is less and less of a problem. Basically being the late one was first laughed at throughout school, then scolded, then looked at honestly and without bs. Never underestimate the power of a person willing to understand. The person in this thread whose pretensions of himself most likely outweigh reality are exactly the types who will keep people down and away from solving their problems.
    — La_Cwoix