Your estimates sabotage your work life balance

? You plan how long something will take.

?? It takes longer than you expected.

?? You have to pick up that slack.

?? Which costs you time you planned to spend on other things. Things like resting, sleeping, eating, fun with your family.

Your estimates sabotage your own work life balance

Estimating how long something will take to do is notoriously difficult to get right.? There is the objective approach of the amount of work to do and how long that will take. ? But there is the subjective assessment of that estimate and the failure to take the unexpected into account.

Many times I've added up the component parts - all based on good data - and arrived at the total.? Then I looked at the total and thought “nah, it won’t take that long”.? And reduced it, substantially.? And created a massive problem for myself which I had to run like fun to recover from.

Have you ever done that?

I don’t know why, but for most effective do-ing type people, it is really hard to overestimate - or even accurately estimate - how long a task will take to do.? This is how we paint ourselves into the corners we often find ourselves in.

An Action to Take Right Now

Once I spotted my tendency to be optimistic with estimates, I got wiser.? I kept data on how long things had taken before and used that in setting the estimates for new things.? I factored in that in a 7-hour day I wasn’t productive for 7 hours - no one is.? I was maybe productive for 5, or 4.? No shame in that, it is reality and I caused myself a big problem by not taking that into account.

I had a policy back in my IT days that served me well:

Under promise and over deliver.? And if you have to give bad news, make sure to only give it once..

This looks like: Calculate your estimate and arrive at the end date, add a chunk for the unexpected.? Then make that date public and weather the inevitable storm.? Then do your darndest to meet that date.

Over time, folks get used to your estimates being right.? They appreciate that you keep your word: you said it would be done by then and it was.? Over time you build a reputation for yourself where your yes means yes and your no means no. If you say you can do it by x date, you do it.

This is hard to start doing, but once you are in the swing, it pays huge dividends:

?? Happy clients - they get good quality when you said it would arrive

?? Happy team - they get time to do the job properly

?? Happy you - you don’t need to work evenings and weekends anymore

So take a look at the work you are currently doing and see whether the estimate you gave it - or the end date that was given - is likely to be accurate.? And be prepared for the discovery that it is very optimistic.

If you allow this to be, what is the outcome?? Missed deadlines, unhappy people, financial losses?

Change it if you can.? You may need to suck it up this time, but next time, set an accurate - even a generous - deadline.? For the sack of your sanity if for no other reason.

And if clients get miffed about long expectations … Do you really want clients who regularly expect the unreasonable?? Do you want to be working for people who push you to the limit and beyond?

What you tolerate tends to keep happening.? If you tolerate clients who want the world yesterday and accommodate them, you’ll likely get more jobs just like that.

#worklifebalance #entrepreneurship #businesscoach #fulfillinglife

I transitioned from corporate IT to life coach living at the coast and having the most amazing work-life balance. Read how I achieved that -->

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