The person who waits deserves the finished attention you promised, not the leftovers of the delay.

Running late creates a quiet temptation to make up the time inside the very thing that was delayed. The appointment gets compressed, the call gets clipped, the review that took three weeks to arrive lands as four hurried lines. So the person who was patient pays twice: once in waiting and once in getting a thinner version than the one they were promised.

If you owe someone something overdue, protect the substance of it rather than the schedule. Say honestly when it will come and then give it the attention it was always going to need. Recover the lost time somewhere that costs you rather than them.