總是遲到的人會更成功？

We all know someone who's always late. If we're meeting up with them, we'll deliberately fib about the time ("See you there at 7:30 pm!" when the table is booked for 8 pm). The thought of them getting to the office on time is unfathomable, and they always almost miss the train.

That person, however, is not me.

If I'm seeing a friend, I'll leave 10 minutes earlier than needed and be at the station half an hour before my train departs, with my tickets already picked up. If I have to get up early for a flight then my alarm will go off an hour earlier, just in case I don't get up straight away.

But, of course, such extreme measures will be for nothing. Because, more often than not, the pal I'm meeting or the person I'm traveling with will be late.

I'll stand waiting in the cold, trying to kill time in some of National Rail's finest establishments. Or I will have jumped out of bed as soon as my unnecessarily early alarm goes off, only to spend the rest of the day trying not to fall asleep.

The thought of being late fills me with such dread that by the time I'm where I need to be, my mind is so distracted with counting the minutes that I'm not fully engaged. And, God forbid, if I am late? I'm riddled with guilt.

So it's no wonder that studies have revealed those people who are regularly late are more optimistic, creative and less prone to stress.

Diana Delonzor, a time-management speaker, explains in her book, Never Be Late Again: "Many late people tend to be both optimistic and unrealistic, and this affects their perception of time. They really believe they can go for a run, pick up their clothes at the dry cleaners, buy groceries and drop off the kids at school in an hour."

A study by Jeff Conte, an associate psychology professor at San Diego State University, which claims that people who are always late have a "Type B" personality, supports this. One of the findings about a Type B person was that they really do perceive time differently, proven by an experiment on "Type A" and Type B people. They were made to guess how long they thought a minute was: Type A averaged guesses of 58 seconds, whereas Type B answered 77 seconds.

For every minute of the day Type B people seemingly believe they have an extra 17 seconds, so it comes as no surprise that they're late. With these extra seconds, their minds are free from time constraints, leaving room for creative thinking.

Compared to the hours I have wasted by being early, combined with the minutes I spend rushing out of the house so as to be on time, I can't help but wish I was a Type B.

It's always thought that by being early you can get more done, but in fact it is those who are late who seem to be getting the most out of their day. Optimism has also been proven to help you live longer ... giving you even more time to be late.

Tomorrow I might just get to work a bit late. Maybe.

我們都知道有些人總遲到。如果要和他們會面，我們會故意把約定時間說得早一點兒（“晚上七點半見！”，而實際上跟餐廳訂的是八點）。要讓這種人準時出現在辦公室是不可想象的，他們幾乎總是趕不上火車。

不過，我不是那樣的人。

如果去見朋友，我會比需要的時間早10分鐘出門。我也會在已經取好票的情況下提前半小時到達火車站。如果我必須早起趕飛機，那么我的鬧鐘會提早一個小時響，以防自己不能馬上起床。

不過，這些非常措施往往毫無意義，因為我要去見的或者跟我一起去旅行的那個人通常會遲到。

我會被冷落在那里干等，不得不在車站的一些精美商店里轉悠，消磨時間。或者，我會在上得過早的鬧鈴一響時，就從床上一骨碌爬起來，結果接下來的一整天就得使勁撐著不讓自己打盹睡著。

遲到的焦慮會讓我感到恐懼，以至于當我到了約定的地方，我的腦子里還在算著時間而無法集中精力做事。天哪，要是我真遲到了呢？我會充滿內疚。

難怪研究表明，那些經常遲到的人會更樂觀、富有創造性、壓力感小。

戴安娜德倫佐是一位時間管理演講者，她在《別再遲到》這本書中寫到：“很多遲到的人往往樂觀而又不切實際，這影響了他們的時間觀念。他們真的認為他們可以在一小時內做完這樣多的事：跑步鍛煉，到干洗店取衣服，買日常用品，送孩子去上學。”

圣地亞哥州立大學的心理學副教授杰夫孔蒂在其一項研究中指出，總是遲到的人有“B類”人格，這也證實了德倫佐的觀點。這項研究的一個發現是，在對“A類”和B類人的測試中，B類人對時間的感受的確異常。實驗要求他們去感受一分鐘的長度：A類人的感覺一般是58秒，而B類人則是77秒。

在B類人那里，每一分鐘似乎都額外增加了17秒。如此，他們遲到也就不足為奇了。有這額外的十幾秒，他們的頭腦能擺脫時間的束縛，得以進行創造性的思考。

(本段的翻譯有獎征集中)

人們通常認為，趕早不趕晚，做事成效更高，但實際上，似乎是那些慣于遲到的人得到的好處最多。這種人樂觀，也因此更長壽……這又給了他們更多可以遲到的時間。

明天我也許會晚點兒去上班。只是也許吧。

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上期獲獎者：江西南昌 南昌師范學院 俞紅楓