Scheduling with Spaciousness: Buffering

In the eagerness to get lots of stuff done, it’s very easy to lean towards underestimating how long things will take with the vague sense that if you plan more you will do more. And so it’s tempting to make aggressive estimates about time: how long your task or project will take, how long it will take to get somewhere, how long it will take for someone else to get something back to you.

The trap inherent in doing this is twofold: first of all, often we don’t actually have enough data to make a precise guess about how long something will really take. Second of all, even if you do know enough to estimate precisely how long something will typically take, things can and will go wrong sometimes. If you’ve only budgeted enough time to finish if everything goes right, then if something goes wrong, it will really throw you off. You’ll then have to choose between which commitments you’ll keep and which you’ll have to break or renegotiate. Personally, I hate being put in that position, so when possible, I allot an extra 5-15% percent of so on top of how long I think something will really take me to do. If I can get it done early, great! If something comes along that trips me up, hopefully I can still pull off being on time.

This buffering step is best done when setting appointments, planning transit time, or agreeing to due dates for projects, primarily when others are involved or there are complex dependencies where being late with one step will mess up other things down the line.

It’s great to have ambitious goals about how long it will actually take to get things done, to meet and even exceed your inward expectations of how long things will take. However, I encourage you to think about adding in a buffer of some extra time when either someone else’s expectations are involved or it’s extremely important not to be late. So that the extra time doesn’t get wasted if you end up being early, you can also have a plan for something else productive you’ll accomplish in the “extra” time if you do manage to get it done quickly, or you can use some of that extra time as a reward for industry and do something relaxing, instead.

Adding in the buffer zone and creating a sense of plenty around your time will do wonders for both your stress level and other peoples’ perspectives of you. Rather than being seen as someone who is often rushed or late, you’ll seem calm and competent, and you’ll feel more peaceful. You’re not wasting time by being a little early; you’re saving energy, maintaining the good will of others, and protecting yourself from the impact of unexpected delays.