Most of the time the only problem this causes is a delay in delivering a glass of rum punch to a thirsty set of lips, but Jamaicans also apply the laid-back attitude to something that needs a little more urgency: preparing for a hurricane.
On Saturday night, Ernesto - which briefly became the first hurricane of the season before slipping back down to a tropical storm - was on course to hit the island the next day.
Radio alerts cautioned residents to batten down the hatches and prepare to evacuate if necessary, but the warnings fell on deaf ears.
In the hills in the North West of the island, locals gathered in the street to cook jerk chicken, drink and blast out reggae music from speaker stacks the size of a small house.
Supermarkets were well stocked with food and water but nobody seemed to be in any hurry to stockpile, despite calls from disaster authorities for people to begin filling their larders.
Even down by the exposed coastline in Montego Bay, a popular tourist destination, limbo parties carried on regardless with only the tourists casting nervous glances to the sky in between cocktails.
Preparing for the same storm, Florida evacuated tourists from the Florida Keys and called up National Guard members.
In the end, Ernesto bypassed Jamaica and made landfall in the US on Tuesday night as a severely-weakened tropical depression, but comparing the two approaches could indicate that Jamaicans are a bit too relaxed for their own good.
'The average Jamaican takes the warnings seriously, but they do things at the last minute,' said Cecil Bailey, acting director general of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM). 'They tend not to plan beforehand and this can cause problems.'
Bailey claimed that it was largely the poor - the group who also suffer the most when their rickety houses are blown away or buried in landslides - who did not prepare.
However, even in well-developed tourist areas no preparations were being made, despite international news channels blaring out warnings about Ernesto's march toward the US - and the fact that the storm was projected to cut across Jamaica to get there.
Tourist Monique Nowicki was staying in the Doctor's Cave Beach Hotel as the storm approached. She asked her hotel receptionist what she should do if Ernesto hit. The receptionist told her not to worry and danced away to the music drifting from the poolside.
'The fact that nobody seemed bothered just made me more nervous,' Nowicki said.
The same pattern seemed to apply elsewhere, with many tourists complaining that they had no idea what they were supposed to do if Ernesto struck.
'More work needs to be done in the tourist sector,' Bailey said. 'Proper information and evacuation information is needed.'
Bailey feels that Jamaica has a decent preparedness infrastructure, including his national agency and an island-wide shelter network, but he added that a major effort lies ahead to change people's attitudes through education.
Jamaica has avoided a major hurricane strike since Gilbert, a category 4 hurricane, lashed the island with 220 kilometre-per-hour winds and killed 45 people in 1988, and according to some this is a major cause of the laissez-faire state of mind.
'We've had several storms that veered away at the last minute and this has caused some complacency,' said Page DeFraites of daily newspaper the Jamaica Gleaner.
In 2004, Jamaica had a lucky escape when Hurricane Ivan changed direction just before it reached the island and stayed out at sea, although strong winds still battered the coastline. Ernesto followed the same pattern, turning north on Sunday and leaving the island untouched.
DeFraites believes this has created a strong feeling amongst the religious population that God is protecting them.
'Because people have been spared before there is an expectation of divine intervention,' he said.
This belief in a higher power is clear amongst the poorer population, such as Clyde, a 56-year-old who ekes out a living rafting tourists down a river and catching fish for his dinner.
Even on Saturday afternoon, as he pointed out damage caused by Hurricane Ivan, he displayed a complete lack of preparation.
'We are trying to wish it away,' Clyde said of Ernesto.
DeFraites also said that Jamaicans' dislike of authority was a major issue.
'If you look at Cuba they mobilize people very well,' he said. 'In Jamaica, an official telling people what to do doesn't go down well. We need mandatory evacuation legislation and this is due to come before Parliament.'
Still, not everybody turns a blind eye. Adam Martin, who runs a flower farm, was one of the few people who actually took any steps.
'I always try to prepare because I know what Gilbert did,' he said. 'It wrecked the country.'
Martin believes that there is a religious fatalism amongst many people, but thinks other factors also come into play.
'People say 'we pray the storm won't come and it turns away',' he said. 'It's easier to say it will miss than prepare for it. People can't be bothered and don't have enough money to spend before every hurricane.'
The result is that Jamaicans have become used to riding their luck, and despite the best efforts of the OPDEM to change their attitudes, many such as Martin worry that this will one day come back to haunt them.
'I expect that when a hurricane does hit there will be huge problems,' he said.
