"I'll just quickly reply to that email."

Three hours later, you've rewritten the email four times, researched a question that came up, and fallen down a rabbit hole of related tasks.

Sound familiar? Your brain is terrible at estimating time.

The Planning Fallacy

Psychologists call this the "planning fallacy"—we consistently underestimate how long tasks will take, even when we have evidence from doing similar tasks before.

It's not stupidity. It's optimism. Your brain imagines the best-case scenario: no interruptions, no complications, everything going smoothly.

Real life has other plans.

Why This Wrecks Your Day

When every task takes longer than expected, your carefully planned day falls apart by 10am.

You scheduled 8 tasks
Each took 50% longer than planned
By lunch, you're "behind"
Stress kicks in
You rush through everything
Quality drops
Tomorrow looks even worse

This isn't a productivity problem. It's an estimation problem.

The Fix: Make Estimation Visible

Here's what actually works: write down how long you think each task will take.

Not in your head. On the task itself.

Why? Because:

1. It forces honest thinking "Reply to email: 5 minutes" looks different when you write it down. You start thinking: "Wait, which email? The complicated one? That's at least 30 minutes."

2. It reveals overcommitment When you see "8 tasks × 45 minutes = 6 hours", but you only have 4 hours available, the math is right there. You can't pretend.

3. You get better over time After a week of estimates, you start noticing patterns. "I always underestimate meetings. I always overestimate admin tasks." Your calibration improves.

The Grindpig Approach

Every task in Grindpig has a time estimate. Default is 15 minutes—because most tasks should be small.

When you add a task, you're asked: how long will this take?

It's not about precision. It's about honesty.

And when you filter your list, you can see the total time. "3 tasks • 2h 15m" tells you immediately whether your plan is realistic.

Start Small

You don't need to time-track everything. Just start adding estimates to your tasks.

Be honest. Round up. Include buffer time.

After a week, you'll wonder how you ever planned without this.

*Grindpig shows you total estimated time for your filtered tasks. No guessing if your day is overloaded. Try it free.*