Column | Why do some people always come too late – and others never?

He really came on time, Jules Koundé was injured in the game against Internazionale on Wednesday. So for the time being he no longer has to be on time.

That does not seem good news to the eternal Laat-Komer from FC Barcelona. That thigh injury is healed by a week or three, but if you want to change routines and you are disturbed in it, it will have much greater consequences. It takes on average sixty -six days to learn a new habit, says science.

Science was also called in to explain why some people are too late, and others are not. Eternal too latecomers cannot really do anything about it, wrote the NOS In a message about the solution that Koundé himself had come up with to be on time from now on. The right back had already been three times late for a competition meeting, and Barcelona trainer Hansi Flick had made short work of it by putting Koundé on the couch. Star player or not: you are just there if you have to be there.

Koundé naturally did not want to miss the important games in the Champions League and the Copa del Rey and decided to engage a security guard to ensure that he came on time. That worked, because in the final of the Copa del Rey he scored the winning goal last weekend. But in the semi -final of the Champions League things went wrong on Wednesday – at least with his thigh.

It is not yet clear whether the security guard Koundé also with injury and although it will continue to warn in order not to break the routine. That the solutions in Barcelona are looking with suspicion in the Netherlands. Because Ismael Saibari and Malik Tillman of PSV also arrive regularly, and they too ended up on the couch for punishment at important competitions.

People who are always on time do not understand that you can always be late. Now I am someone who is always in the nick of time, or just not in the nick of time and maybe that makes me extra interested in the psychology of being late. According to the American professor Jeff Conte, it is due to the type you are.

Ambitious, competitive types are usually on time. Not creative, reflective, investigative types. Combine that with the fact that some people are polychrons – who like to do everything at the same time – and other people who are only one thing working at the same time and only start something new when the above is completed.

Look, there are conclusions: Saibari and Tillman are creative in their game and Koundé is certainly in the field of outfits. Being late is just in their personality. I am also creative, reflective and investigative. The fact that I am also competitive is probably ensuring that I am always around the nick of time.

And I am a real polychronous: I prefer to stuff my day as full as possible, I do as much as possible at the same time. But yes, I am also a woman. They can, multitasking. With men who are too late, we can now make short work. What do you say? Is it in your nature? Excuses. You are a man. And we all know about that: a man is not a polychronous. A man can only do one thing at a time.

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