Why Do We Overcommit?
A study in a 2005 Journal of Experimental Psychology suggests that it is just human nature we allow for more time in the future that is actually available.
Do you find yourself committing to too many tasks and activities, only to realize on the day that you have much too much to do? Gal Zauberman, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and John Lynch Jr., PhD, of Duke University, say you’ll probably always do this:
Participants believed that both time and money would be more available in “a month” than “today,” and believed it more strongly for time than for money. A deeper investigation of a psychological phenomenon called “delay discounting,” in which people tend to lessen the importance of future rewards, showed that people also discounted future time more than both gains and losses in future money.
The key here is to assume that you won’t have as much time as you think. Much like the principle of giving yourself more time than you think you’ll actually need to get somewhere so to avoid being late, we should allow more time for everything else we plan to do; in case we balls up our projected time management.
More so now than ever; with more email, more networking and more distractions; putting a little less on our future plates might be just enough.
Your thoughts?
Why Do We Overcommit? Study Suggests We Think We’ll Have More Time In The Future Than We Have Today - [ScienceDaily]
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Comments
KT says on October 22nd, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Concern that a ‘no’ now might mean never having the opportunity again. Also concern that the person you’re having to turn down will think you are unorganized, lazy, apathetic, or uncaring — and this will adversely affect you in the future.
Perfect Life Project says on October 22nd, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Over-committing is one of the biggest problems in modern life. I believe technology is largely to blame. What was meant to make our lives easier contributes to us taking on more tasks than we should.
I have consciously made an effort to under commit myself in the last year, leaving more time for impromptu activities and whims. By not over-scheduling my life I have given myself much greater freedom and never been happier.
Martin Wildam says on October 23rd, 2007 at 7:23 am
I think that the bigger problem is that we do tend to think that things (in the future) will/can be solved facing less problems.
Although we face problems and drawbacks all the time when working we assume that a future project will be solved without problems.
And actually the unexpected things are those which eat the most hours then. I guess as far you look at the future the more you apply only approximately and optimistic thoughts without looking at details (that might cause problems).
UpwardAction Coaching says on October 23rd, 2007 at 8:25 pm
Over commitment is the result of an inability to say “No” when appropriate and not having an appreciation for the real value of our time. Placing a dollar value on every minute of our time will help us limit activities and commitments to those that are important to our values, needs and goals.
GreatManagement says on October 24th, 2007 at 10:27 am
UpwardAction Coaching - I agree with you. Find out how much ‘you’ cost per hour and you’ll soon start to give up those irrelevant tasks.
I think we over commit to others because human nature is we want to please.
I think we over commit ourselves because we always think we can do things quicker.
DIY is my nemeses. Put a shelf up will only take me 20 minutes. Normally ends up 2 or 3 hours!!
Andrew