This Is Why You Keep Missing Deadlines
Curated from: hbr.org
Ideas, facts & insights covering these topics:
3 ideas
·1.16K reads
30
Explore the World's Best Ideas
Join today and uncover 100+ curated journeys from 50+ topics. Unlock access to our mobile app with extensive features.
The Planning Fallacy
Think about the last task you completed. Did it take you around the time you’d estimated? Probably not.
Our perceptions of our available time, our abilities, and any roadblocks we may hit are greatly skewed. This is a phenomenon called the planning fallacy and it happens to professionals at all levels and in every occupation. What can we do along the way to keep us on target and help us meet our goals?
49
516 reads
Optimism Bias
Research shows that we often underestimate the time and obstacles involved in completing a task even when it directly contradicts our past experiences.
This can be explained by our optimism bias — our natural tendency to believe that the future will somehow be better than the past.
42
374 reads
Overcome the Planning Fallacy
- The next time you find yourself struggling to estimate, ask: How much time and effort have similar tasks required in the past?
- Schedule buffer time: Keep in mind that there will always be factors outside of your control, and moreover, you may very well be overestimating your capabilities.
- Commit early and publicly: Give yourself a little bit of external commitment pressure in order to not leave all of your work to the last minute.
- Assume the worst: Start by imagining what will go wrong before it actually does. By doing so, you’ll be better able to foresee potential (if unlikely) issues. And you’ll be equipped to develop a suitable backup plan as a preventative measure.
47
271 reads
IDEAS CURATED BY
Camille A.'s ideas are part of this journey:
Learn more about career with this collection
How to set achievable goals
How to manage time for personal and professional life
How to avoid distractions
Related collections
Similar ideas
11 ideas
4 ideas
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates