The Planning Fallacy: How to Tackle Time Estimates

We all know that someone who’s never on time. Lost keys, traffic, phone problems… Perhaps you’re the one who’s perpetually running behind, but you don’t have to be.

A phenomenon known as the “planning fallacy” is to blame. The predictions we make around time and resources are subject to an optimism bias, leading us to underestimate how much time we actually need. Optimism – however unrealistic - is often rewarded leading us to over-promise and under-deliver, time and time again.

Luckily, there are two tools in your arsenal to tackle this problem: realism and transparency.