Are you a bit wary when it comes to deciding how much time you’ll budget for a task or errand?

Do you think having a buffer or cushion of time is a bad idea?

In this post, I offer three good reasons as to why overestimating your time can be a good thing.

You get a better idea of how long something will take.

When you’re starting out on a brand-new task or chore, it can be difficult to determine just how long it will take to complete it.

Say, for example, you’re interested in determining how long it will take you to drive to the new movie theater in your town.

You guess it will take you thirty minutes, when in fact it takes on fifteen minutes.

If you overestimate your time, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Not only will you arrive at your destination on time, you’ll have a more pleasant experience than if you arrived late.

This positive experience will help reinforce how many minutes your task or chore will take to complete.

Your other appointments, meetings, and engagements won’t be affected.

One of the best reasons for overestimating your time is that you’ll have a built-in buffer of time.

Let’s say you’re going to meet a friend for lunch on Saturday. Before you meet with your friend, you must finish up your weekly volunteer time at the local soup kitchen. You have to clean things up before you leave, but this is the first time you’re going to do so alone.

It normally takes you half-an-hour to clean things with the rest of your volunteer group, so you estimate it will take you about an hour to complete everything by yourself. It turns out, it takes you forty-five minutes to finish your work.

Overestimating your time worked out well for you. Besides finishing your work in a reasonable amount of time, your lunch date with your friend will still stand, and won’t be pushed back or delayed.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR CALENDAR.

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You’ll still have time available to you if you finish early.   

Okay, so you thought that marketing meeting would run for two hours, but it only lasted one hour. Why, that’s fantastic news! Finishing early isn’t a bad thing. You can use this time as you see fit; you could catch up on some office tasks, or you could take a well-deserved coffee break. It’s entirely up to you.

Contrast this with having little to no time available to you in your schedule. Which would you rather have?

How about you? Where in your schedule do you overestimate your time? Does it help you to stay on schedule? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!