Written compositions organized by temporal order are narratives. Items such as descriptions of people, places, or objects are organized as they occur to the narrator, for example, as the narrator takes apart an object or walks through a building or meets various people. This is a common method of composition but there are others.
Spatial order is another method of composition. Items such as descriptions of people, places, or objects are organized by their physical or spatial positions or relationships, for example, starting at the top and proceeding downward. Explanations of a geopolitical matter might proceed in geographic order.
Travel can be described temporally or spatially. An itinerary is usually arranged temporally but telling about it afterwards might be more interesting if arranged spatially. There are other principles of organization such as climactic order (order of importance) and topical order.
In science the independent variable determines the type of organization. If the independent variable is time, the organization is temporal. If the independent variable is space or distance, the organization is spatial. The stance in spatial organization corresponds to the time in temporal organization.
The values of the independent variable are the index to the order of the composition. If the independent variable is time, then the times indicate the steps in the order. If the independent variable is space or distance, then the stances indicate the steps in the order. Once the step is indicated, the composition may be the same: whether it’s Tuesday, so the tour is in Paris or it’s Paris, so the tour is on Tuesday makes no difference.