Are you in the 17%?

Did you know, that only 17% of people can estimate how long a task takes?

The rest of us?(so the research*** says) apparently have those pesky brains that distort the time estimation – which gets in our way of making progress.

This works both ways – we overestimate the stuff that we don’t want to do (do you know how long it actually takes to unload your dishwasher? Or reconcile your Xero?) – it’s not as long as you think!

On the flip side, we don’t allow enough time for other things (those tasks that unravel and turn into a bird’s nest in your business fishing line). And then, because we’ve jammed our schedules full, we slide into reactive mode?because we didn’t allow the space for timing.

Now I'm not going to give you “something new to try” (because in a full life, who needs more of that crap?!) but instead, to offer this as a calming balm – it’s not just you!

It’s our human brains.

Which means, you can work through it. We’ll drop some ideas in below, but rather than use that to do anything with right now, how about you save it for when you’re in “learning mode” with your feet up over the hols and you’ve got time and space to reflect on it?

• Get a timer going when you need to do your “most often” tasks. And time yourself. Then you’ll know.
• Use a tool like our Power Hour (included in Your Business Club membership) or Focusmate (free for 3 sessions a week) and see how much of that planned task you can get through in an hour.
• Make it a game. See how accurate your guess is compared to you getting it done. Give yourself figurative (or heck, literal!) gold stars for guessing right. Learn from the miscalculations.
• Put in more “white space” (e.g gaps between planned tasks and meetings) in your diary. This will help you with the overruns and not going into panic mode.
• Work better – take breaks more regularly, which means you will be getting work done in the best possible time (and to the best possible quality).
• Make time to procrastinate. Counter intuitive, but proven in research**.
• Ask for help. I love this stuff and am something of a super hero when it comes to helping you work better (not harder). I've got space for a few deep dive sessions in April or you can be kind to your future self and book in now for May. We can do a short sprint, or a longer habit change kinda thing - change is unique, so is working with me.

In the meantime, save this down (or copy it, print it, save it to your Trello board, send it to yourself in an email - you do you!) and leave it til?your brain has space (and you have time) to act on it.

(just as an aside, it usually takes 2 minutes to unload most dishwashers – the perfect length of time to multitask and make a hot cuppa!)

** the research is real. It’s just that I’m a big picture kinda gal… and at this point in the week I can’t be arsed to find the details. If you’re really curious, send me a message and I will forensic my notes to find you a foot note/ link to the work, and prove that it was legit and not just something I made up.

When I’m not making cups of tea and using Focusmate to GSD, I help busyness owners become business owners again. If you want less busy, and more results in your business - let’s chat.