If we were to separate the population in terms of time management, there would be two clearly different groups: those who arrive late and those who arrive before the agreed time. However, we sometimes dismiss latecomers as selfish or not very responsible. , reality is more complex than it seems: there are minds better prepared for punctuality than others.

Default punctuality. According to a survey of the American population, between 15% and 20% of those interviewed are “constantly” late. While the experts La Vanguardia consulted analyze the reasons why they didn’t show up on time, they point out that this could be due to behaviors acquired through family learning. That is, people trained in non-punctual environments are more likely to be.

77 seconds. An experiment conducted in 2006 reached a very revealing conclusion about the concept of time. So, after examining two groups of people (punctual and non-punctual), they noticed that people who tended to arrive late in fields felt like a minute was taking more seconds than it actually was. For them, one minute passes in 77 seconds instead of 60.

When asked how long it took the participants to consume a minute, the punctual group perceived that the minute hand moved around the clock face in 58 seconds, while the non-punctual felt time passing more slowly. So, indeed, it has been shown that there are other people who have and don’t have some kind of built-in internal clock.

Optimism and relaxation. What is usually a guarantee of good health in most cases is associated with being late in terms of time management. According to a study conducted by Harvard University, people who are late tend to be more comfortable than those who organize themselves to arrive on time. That is, the effects of procrastination and bad time management have less of an impact on the mood of optimists.

Accordingly, experts consulted by the BBC point out that optimistic people with low self-control tend to be more punctual than those who arrive on time.

ADHD. Character disorders such as attention deficit disorder are also associated with the habit of being late. It has been shown that at least half of such patients have impaired brain functions such as planning, organization, control or emotional regulation, and this has forced them to live with an anomaly in the management of the air.

Japan case. If being late is not welcome in Western society in general, poor time management in Japan is bordered on obsession. Not only because the Japanese have a reputation for being very, very punctual, but also for elevating the art of apology to areas unthinkable in Spain when they weren’t. One of the most recent examples was the rail company, which had to publicly apologize for one of its trains leaving 20 seconds earlier than scheduled.

Picture: Fabrizio Verrecchia