Ahead of time" is an English idiom that is used when something is occurring before a specific moment or milestone in time. It can be used to indicate that something is happening before a scheduled event. In other instances, "ahead of time" can refer to some task being accomplished at a pace that's significantly faster than the time it was originally intended to take. The phrase is uniquely expressive because it implies that a person can somehow actually get ahead of the march of time, which is impossible.