Be More Realistic About the Time You Have

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We are master storytellers. We tell ourselves fanciful stories to motivate ourselves to get vast amounts of work done in small amounts of time. We jot down task after task after task, sure that we can complete them all within a standard workday. And yet, at the end of the day, we’re stunned to find that work remains unfinished and we have to dash to the finish line. We’re not deliberately deceiving ourselves about what we can do with our time. But despite past evidence, in the moment our predictive engines gum up, and we’re convinced we’ll be able to achieve the extraordinary in an ordinary day. Welcome to the land of magical thinking. We’ve all traveled there, chasing the chimera of unfettered time. We persuade ourselves there’s no harm in overambitious plans because they help us overachieve. And especially with remote work, we are convinced of the need to show others our value through overwork. Yet when we indulge in magical thinking, we can disappoint others who depend on us, miss d

Harvard Business Review Logo March 23, 2021 MirageC/Getty Images It’s no surprise that many of us overload our workday, assuming we can take on many tasks in a small amount of time. Yet, at the end of the day, we’re stunned to find that work remains We are master storytellers. We tell ourselves fanciful stories to motivate ourselves to get vast amounts of work done in small amounts of time. We jot down task after task after task, sure that we can complete them all within a standard workday. And yet, at the end of the day, we’re stunned to find that work remains unfinished and we have to…

Be More Realistic About the Time You Have

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