You know that task you were sure would take five hours… and somehow took fifteen?
Even more strangely, when the next one comes along, there’s a good chance you’ll still convince yourself that this time five hours will be enough.
This video explores why we are so consistently bad at predicting how long things will take, even when experience should have taught us better.
Which raises a few questions.
- When a project overruns, how much is really down to “unexpected problems”, and how much was the original plan simply too optimistic?
- Could giving yourself more time actually make a task take longer? And what does that mean for the deadlines we set ourselves, our teams or our clients?
- If even huge projects with access to years of historical data regularly take longer and cost more than expected, why are humans still so bad at estimating? 🤷
And, perhaps most importantly, can we actually get better at it?!
So. Many. Deadlines.
For our Watch & Talk sessions, this video is a great starting point for discussion around time management, planning, decision-making, accountability, project management and how we estimate time and resources.
Watch the video here (but it’s always more interesting to talk about it 😉):
