On Being Late (from Mungowit's End)

Mike Munger is at it again. He has a great post on poeple who are chronically late. Here's Mungo's "Five True Facts About People and Time" in distilled form:

1. The busier the person, the less likely they are to be late.
2. The closer the person's office to the meeting room, the more likely they are to be late to the meeting.
3. Small meetings can have convergence problems, just like maximum likelihood estimations (gotta have some econometrics background to fully appreciate this one).
   
4. If you are always late, it's not an accident.
   
5. Lateness is ingrained, as a social convention.
   

There's more - read the whole thing here.

I'd also add a sixth one: "The person who's always on time for meetings is more productive than the one who's chronically late." The inability to self-disipline yourself to do something as simple as making it to a meeting on time is a very good predictor of self-displine in other areas.

And self-disipline (not intelligence, training, or anything else) is IMO the single most important factor in being productive.