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productivity
You believe your future work will be faster today.
People consistently underestimate how long tasks take, even with past evidence.
Known as the planning fallacy, research shows that you ignore your history of delays and trust that the current task will be the exception. You view your future self as a more capable, less distracted version of your current self. You fail to account for the actual constraints of the process.
Your present self is always an optimist about your future self.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Buehler, Griffin, and Ross, 1994
- What the check found
- The claim accurately reflects the foundational findings of Buehler, Griffin, and Ross (1994) regarding the planning fallacy, a well-established psychological phenomenon.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.