The “creeping dread” you mentioned is why Structured Procrastination doesn’t work for me, even if it helps me get more things done. The feeling of dread and guilt I get can be so strong that it takes over my whole experience. Maybe it would work for me if I was self-employed—i.e, if my number one task was just a personal project. (and maybe the author addresses this—I haven’t read too much into it).
Worst case of planning fallacy
Not serious, but recent: My dad asked for help replacing a shutter on the side of the house—it would take “only 15 − 20 minutes tops”. I factored in the planning fallacy and expected it to take an hour. It took 3 hours. Hofstadter’s Law strikes again.
I’ve noticed I’m too pessimistic on the micro but too optimistic on the macro. I’ll estimate that a small task on a song (like quantizing the drums) will take 4 hours and finishing the song itself will take like 2 weeks. When I actually quantize the drums, it only takes 45 minutes. Yet finishing the song takes 2 months, even though it’s made up of small tasks that don’t take as much time as I thought. Most of my time wasted tends to come from avoiding doing those small tasks. The avoidance itself might come from feeling like these small tasks take forever, even though I have a lot of evidence that it doesn’t.
The “creeping dread” you mentioned is why Structured Procrastination doesn’t work for me, even if it helps me get more things done. The feeling of dread and guilt I get can be so strong that it takes over my whole experience. Maybe it would work for me if I was self-employed—i.e, if my number one task was just a personal project. (and maybe the author addresses this—I haven’t read too much into it).
Worst case of planning fallacy
Not serious, but recent: My dad asked for help replacing a shutter on the side of the house—it would take “only 15 − 20 minutes tops”. I factored in the planning fallacy and expected it to take an hour. It took 3 hours. Hofstadter’s Law strikes again.
I’ve noticed I’m too pessimistic on the micro but too optimistic on the macro. I’ll estimate that a small task on a song (like quantizing the drums) will take 4 hours and finishing the song itself will take like 2 weeks. When I actually quantize the drums, it only takes 45 minutes. Yet finishing the song takes 2 months, even though it’s made up of small tasks that don’t take as much time as I thought. Most of my time wasted tends to come from avoiding doing those small tasks. The avoidance itself might come from feeling like these small tasks take forever, even though I have a lot of evidence that it doesn’t.