Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to figure out how long things will take.
Speaker 1: This way you can make wise choices about how to
Speaker 1: plan your life. I decided to do an episode on
Speaker 1: this topic after getting a note from Before Breakfast listeners Zoe,
Speaker 1: who has learned how useful time estimates can be. Zoe
Speaker 1: wrote in that I once heard a rule that if
Speaker 1: a task takes under five minutes, don't add it to
Speaker 1: your to do list, just do it. She says that
Speaker 1: I lived by this for quite a while, but found
Speaker 1: that it didn't always work. For example, when I'm grocery
Speaker 1: shopping and I randomly remember that I need to reschedule
Speaker 1: an appointment, I wasn't going to call the office in
Speaker 1: the middle of the cereal aisle, so I adapted the
Speaker 1: rule just a bit. She says that my trick is
Speaker 1: when I write things on my to do list, I
Speaker 1: include a time estimate in minutes next to the task. Then,
Speaker 1: when I am ready to tackle my to do list
Speaker 1: and I become overwhelmed by the length and don't know
Speaker 1: where to start, I knock off the tasks that are
Speaker 1: under five minutes. First. This boosts my motivation because I
Speaker 1: can cross off some quick winds and my list is
Speaker 1: already shorter. She also says that the other benefit of
Speaker 1: the time estimate is that when I have free time,
Speaker 1: I can pick which task fits the time frame I have.
Speaker 1: I think that this idea of including time estimates on
Speaker 1: a to do list is wise. In general, having an
Speaker 1: accurate sense of how long things will take is what
Speaker 1: separates time management masters from everyone else. It is a
Speaker 1: very useful skill. I also know that it is a
Speaker 1: rare skill. Time estimation is really really hard. It's challenging
Speaker 1: for a number of reasons. Sometimes people are just oblivious.
Speaker 1: There are people who think it takes thirty minutes to
Speaker 1: get to work, even though it takes forty five minutes
Speaker 1: every day and has for the past week. I don't know,
Speaker 1: Maybe the last five days have all been atypical. Maybe
Speaker 1: in this person's fantasy world, no one else should be
Speaker 1: on the road at eight am. In any case, the
Speaker 1: estimate is wildly optimistic. Other times, we're dealing with complex
Speaker 1: or highly variable tasks. If you've never done something before,
Speaker 1: it's hard to know how long it will take. Or
Speaker 1: maybe there are a lot of what ifs. This past spring,
Speaker 1: I learned that the length of my nine year olds
Speaker 1: little league games varied widely based on the skills of
Speaker 1: the other team's pitchers. Nine year olds are still figuring
Speaker 1: out the pitching thing, and sometimes there would be long
Speaker 1: innings with lots of walks, and then some really good
Speaker 1: pitchers would strike out three batters in a row, appelling
Speaker 1: the game forward with rather ferocious velocity. So time estimation
Speaker 1: is hard, but it's also really important. As Zoe pointed out,
Speaker 1: it helps you figure out what you can fit in
Speaker 1: any given unit of time. If you've got an hour,
Speaker 1: you can't do four tasks requiring twenty minutes apiece. Frankly,
Speaker 1: you'll probably have trouble getting through three because switching between
Speaker 1: tasks takes time. But maybe you could do to twenty
Speaker 1: minute ones and then to five minute ones and emerge
Speaker 1: on the other side of the hour feeling accomplished. Or
Speaker 1: you could skip this estimation step and just hope Superman
Speaker 1: will reverse the Earth and turn back time. I'm always
Speaker 1: amazed by how persistently hopeful people can be, and by
Speaker 1: hopeful I mean delusional. People will create to do lists
Speaker 1: that are completely unrelated to the amount of time available.
Speaker 1: You cannot fit fourteen hours of tasks into an eight
Speaker 1: hour work day. This is what leads to people feeling
Speaker 1: incredibly behind. But it's not about discipline, it's not about talent,
Speaker 1: it's about physics. In any case, accurate time estimates can
Speaker 1: help you make more reasonable task lists. They can also
Speaker 1: help you figure out when to say no or to
Speaker 1: ask for help. Ten hours of tasks that are due
Speaker 1: in six hours must be spread over more than one person,
Speaker 1: and as Zoe points out, accurate time estimates can also
Speaker 1: help you use bits of time. I have ten minutes
Speaker 1: before this call, and I estimate that calling to move
Speaker 1: an appointment will take five minutes. Bingo, we have a winner.
Speaker 1: Of course, this raises the question of how we can
Speaker 1: learn to estimate tasks correctly, or at least get better
Speaker 1: at this skill. This is one reason I suggest people
Speaker 1: try tracking their time. You can start to see there
Speaker 1: in black and white how long things take. It is
Speaker 1: hard to write down day after day that a drive
Speaker 1: takes forty five minutes and persist in believing it takes thirty.
Speaker 1: You can try, but hopefully rational sorts will respond to
Speaker 1: a preponderance of evidence. You can also start to see ranges.
Speaker 1: We do this naturally for some things. For instance, the
Speaker 1: drive to the airport is forty five to sixty minutes,
Speaker 1: depending on traffic. You can come up with a range
Speaker 1: for any variable task, then budget your time based on
Speaker 1: the upper limit. If you get lucky, great you can
Speaker 1: go find some other stuff to do. But if you
Speaker 1: hit the top of the range, you're still okay. You
Speaker 1: can break big tasks down into constituent parts. Preparing a
Speaker 1: presentation is vague, but you could budget thirty minutes for outlining,
Speaker 1: another thirty for finding the stats that will help make
Speaker 1: your case. In an hour or so to make the slides,
Speaker 1: build in another hour to practice twice. You can also
Speaker 1: ask other people. Maybe you've never written this sort of report,
Speaker 1: but Pete, who used to be on your team, has
Speaker 1: budget ten minutes to call Pete see what he says.
Speaker 1: Of course, Pete might be wrong, because, as we've noted,
Speaker 1: many people are bad at estimation, but his estimate gives
Speaker 1: you a starting point that you can then revise as
Speaker 1: you go, and finally, when all else fails, bid high.
Speaker 1: If Zoe puts down that it will take five minutes
Speaker 1: to move an appointment, but she calls and the receptionist
Speaker 1: solves her problem in thirty seconds. She's not going to
Speaker 1: be unhappy, whereas if she tells herself it will take
Speaker 1: one minute and she tries to slip it in between
Speaker 1: other things, and then she starts hearing that hold music
Speaker 1: and then her manager is calling right at the time
Speaker 1: she said she would. Well, that sounds stressful. So when
Speaker 1: you're making your to do lists, be sure to include
Speaker 1: time estimates and then, just for fun, add up the estimates.
Speaker 1: Does this number look like less than the amount you
Speaker 1: plan to work today? If so, right, If not, time
Speaker 1: to go back and change something. I promise this will
Speaker 1: help you feel less busy while getting more done in
Speaker 1: the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's B the
Speaker 1: number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com That Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
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