Lifehack for getting out of things that are running late: at the scheduled end time, just tell whoever is in charge “sorry, but I’m expected elsewhere” and leave.
You don’t have to say who is expecting you, or where you’re expected to be. They don’t need to know that, they just need to know you’re leaving. You don’t need other plans already, because other people don’t have any way of knowing if you’re telling the truth or not and social convention prohibits them from asking. They can’t argue that you shouldn’t have made plans for immediately after their event because that’s just their own fault for not telling you the correct timing.
And if you’re like me and are autistic and incapable of lying, there’s still a way to make it work. Who says you can’t expect yourself to be somewhere? Who says you can’t be expected to be at home doing nothing? After all, the entire purpose of having a schedule in the first place is so that you have a time when you can expect whatever event to be finished. If you were ever given an end time, then at that time you can truthfully say that your past self expected you to be somewhere else afterwards, and then you can leave.
Never stay stuck in a long boring meeting again. Don’t work past your assigned shift. Just say you have to go now, and go.
