Question over "Stranger Than Fiction" (open spoilers!)

Cafe Society
1

I love this movie, and I watch it pretty much every week, but there is one thing the bugs the crap out of me, and I can’t figure it out, so I am hoping a doper can help me out.

During the end of the movie the Narrator (Emma Thompson) says something to the effect of “What Harold had not realized that Wednesday two weeks prior was that the time he got from his fellow commuter was a full three minutes later than the time to which is life was previously set…” and says some more stuff ending with “therefore he did not barely catch the bus…”

My question is: If he barely catches the bus every day, and now his watch is set three full minutes later how is it that he is at the bus stop BEFORE the bus comes?

Shouldn’t the line have been that the time he got was three minutes EARLIER than his life was previously set? If that is the case it makes sense that he is to the bus stop before the bus gets there so that he can push the get out of the way and eventually get hit. The way it is written I am confused because in theory, he should have missed the but altogether

Please dopernation help me! I love this movie and I want to be able to enjoy it again!!

2

Suppose Alice and Bob both have watches, and Bob’s watch is set to three minutes later than Alice’s watch.

When Alice’s watch reads 12:57, Bob’s watch will read 1:00. If they both go running to the bus stop when they think it’s 1:00, Bob will get there three minutes earlier than Alice.

Ergo, having your watch set to three minutes later causes you to arrive three minutes earlier. You do everything three minutes earlier, including thinking “Oh, it’s 1:00 now”.

3

But if you change your watch from three minutes early to three minutes late, than whatever you were early for you are now late for because you won’t compensate for the time change…you won’t think that far ahead.

It makes sense if you don’t change time at all, but not if you change your watch as he does in the movie