Member-only story
4 Tips That Will Help You Make Better Time Estimates
Do you ever plan for a task to take an hour, but it takes four hours? Or maybe you allotted an hour to finish a job that only took 10 minutes. Either way, research has shown that in general, people are notoriously bad at estimating time. We underestimate how long something is going to take, and we overestimate our ability to get something done in the allotted time period.
Estimating the amount of time a task will take can be very important, especially at work. So how can you get better at making time estimates? Like anything else, there are several ways to improve. Use these four tips and you’ll be well on your way to mastering your time.
1. Measure where you are right now. Start by estimating how long you think it will take you to complete each of your tasks every day for at least a few days; ideally you should record at least a week. Then record how long it actually takes. To get your “time factor,” or how much difference there was between the two, divide your estimate by the actual amount of time used.
For example, if you decide to change the oil in your car and you believe that it will take 45 minutes — but it requires 60 minutes, your time factor would be 1.33. The task took you 33% longer than planned.
