Arriving early gives you time to see the room before it fills. Being present starts before the thing begins.

Turning up on time puts you inside something already moving. Getting there early puts you in it while it is still being assembled, so you see who sets out the chairs, who is nervous, who knows everybody. Attention is not only what you do once a thing starts; it needs enough slack to notice anything at all. Sprinting in at the last second spends that slack before you arrive.

Pick one thing this week you usually reach exactly on time and get there ten minutes early. Practice, a shift, a class. Use the quiet to look around rather than down at your phone.