Read Samuel Pepys diaries from the 17th century. They're available online in various forms. It's fascinating both what has changed and what hasn't changed at all. Pepys wrote these diaries primarily for his own use and so he sends to be largely honest (at least as much as we are honest with ourselves). He describes cheating on his wife, lying to people and so on.

Anyway, Pepys complains frequently that his day's work was lost because he was not able to meet with someone in the expected place at the anticipated time. That's just how things were then, you could neither phone to ask "where are you?" nor to say "change of plan I will now be at the old bridge until 4pm".