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🌟 QUICK WIN OF THE WEEK

Next time you estimate a task, write your number down. Then add the three things you left out: finding what you need, making a decision partway through, and waiting on one other person.

Now check whether the new number still fits inside your day.

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💬 REAL-WORLD SCENARIO

“I thought this would take an hour. It has been three.”

You estimated the doing, and that part was probably about right.

What you left out is everything wrapped around it:

• Finding the file and remembering where you left off
• Making a decision you did not know was part of the task
• Sending a message, then waiting on the reply
• Getting pulled away and coming back cold, which costs you the first ten minutes twice

That is a measuring problem. You priced the visible work carefully and gave the invisible work a zero.

And because the invisible part is roughly the same size every time, you are not off by a random amount. You are off in the same direction, every single time.

Which is oddly good news. A consistent error is one you can correct with arithmetic.

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⚙️ MINI FRAMEWORK

Estimate the Whole Thing

1️⃣ Estimate the doing, the way you always have

2️⃣ Add the setup: finding, opening, remembering where you were

3️⃣ Add the handoff: anyone you need an answer from, and how long they usually take

4️⃣ Add one interruption, because there is always one

If you have never done the task before, take the total and add half again. A first attempt includes learning, and learning takes time you cannot see in advance.

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🤔 QUESTION OF THE WEEK

What is the task you re-estimate every week, and get wrong the same way every week?

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⚡ WANT MORE HELP?

Estimating is one of the skills inside Practical Project Management, along with the rest of the unglamorous work that decides whether a project stays calm or comes apart.

Scoping something so it can be finished. Naming one owner so a task cannot drift. Keeping a decision log so the same debate does not reopen in three weeks. Writing a one page brief so everyone starts from the same picture.

None of it is complicated. It is the difference between a project that runs you and a project you run.

Click Here to Learn More About Practical Project Management

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See you in two weeks, Shay