018: Cushioning Your Time: Build Buffers Into Your Life

Hello, hello everyone. Welcome to Productivity Paradox. I’m your host, Tanya Dalton,  and this is episode 18. Today, we are going to be talking about cushioning your time  and creating buffers for yourself. As you know, season two is all about streamlining.  You might be thinking to yourself, “What does this have to do with streamlining?”  Streamlining isn’t just about taking things off of your plate. It’s really about creating  the right size plate for the items you want to put on it. That’s where cushioning your  time comes in, because it’s going to help us figure out what we can actually fit on our  plates, so when it comes down to our priorities and the things we want to spend our  time on, we can accurately get our plate set exactly the way we want it.  

 The only thing that we know we can expect in life is the unexpected. Cushions  and buffers are going to help us with that, because we can either react in the  moment when it comes, or we can prepare by creating these buffers. A buffer is  literally defined as something that prevents two things from coming into contact and  harming one another. The problem is we want to think of our timelines for our goals  and our projects as the room of requirement that no matter what, the timeline will  somehow magically work. It will expand to fit our estimates even if we dramatically  underestimated our time.  

 We feel like we should be able to achieve everything even when it’s not  realistic. It’s not that you need to adjust your goals. It’s really about adjusting that  timeline we have in our heads. The room of requirement unfortunately only works for  Harry Potter. Why do we need these buffers? It’s because we need breathing room.  That’s the white space that allows us to readjust when needed. It gives us the grace  to get back on track when we fall off. We all fall off from time to time. Even if you  have really well laid out plans, there are times where you’re going to fall off track. It  may not be your fault that you fall off track, but you have to allow yourself the space  to get back on and to give yourself that grace to be okay with that.  

 I think a great example of buffers is when you’re driving, because most of us  are using buffers without even thinking about it. You know that extra space you keep  between your car and the car in front of you? That’s a buffer. You do that to give  yourself time to respond or to adapt any sudden or unexpected moves by the other  cars. When you get distracted, you might forget about that buffer zone. You get too  close to the car ahead of you, and you maybe even have to do something unnatural  like swerve or slam on your brakes. It’s the same way with a project or a timeline  that’s gotten away from you, because before you know it, the day comes where it’s  due. The day the presentation’s arrived, or the project is due no matter how much  time you’ve built in.  

 If you’ve underestimated, you’re forced to swerve or slam on the brakes. By  creating buffers, that gives us the space for that breathing room to allow for the  expansion of ideas and to allow us to avoid those swerves in the road. Now,  struggling with timelines is not something that is unique to you, because most people  admit to having a tendency to underestimate their time while simultaneously  believing their current estimates are accurate. We know we underestimate our time,  

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but we still believe our estimates are accurate. I think that’s interesting, because there  was a study that they asked participants anonymously to estimate how long it would  take to complete a test.  

 Those participants were able to estimate correctly. That tells us that we often  know how long something’s going to take us, but we have a really hard time  admitting it, even if we’re just admitting it to ourselves. We want to think that our  hours come with more than 60 minutes, when in actuality, we all have the same  amount of time. If you feel like you probably underestimate your time, you are  absolutely not alone. This is something that most people are doing without realizing  it. It’s a very common phenomenon called planning fallacy. This is a term that was  coined by Daniel Kahneman, which refers to people’s tendency to underestimate how  long a task will take.  

 He did a study of graduate students. He asked them to estimate how long they  thought it would take to complete their senior thesis. For the students, they found  that the best case scenario was that they estimated it would take an average of 27.4  days. Best case scenario they’d be done in 27.4 days. The worst case scenario, they  estimated it would take them about 48.6 days. 27.4 days, best case scenario. Worst  case. 48.6 days when in actuality, on average, it actually took the students 55.5 days,  blowing that worst case scenario out of the water. What’s really interesting is that  people also tend to underestimate even when they’ve already done the task before.  That’s because we love to rely on the best case scenario.  

 That one time where you drove to work and it took you 20 minutes, that’s what  we rely on even though that was the only time in your entire life that’s happened, and  you hit every green light on your route. Somehow, even if it regularly takes us 30  minutes, we truly want to believe that the 20 minute scenario is achievable and is  therefore the norm. When we chronically underestimate how long something is going  to take and we find that inevitably these things take longer, we feel disappointed,  because something unexpected comes up or the task starts being more involved than  we’d anticipated, or that our estimate was just simply too optimistic in the first place.  

 Then, you’re just reaching to the problem. Your results are going to suffer,  because you don’t have that space, that breathing room. You end up pulling an all  nighter, cutting corners to hand in your project, or you have somebody else on your  team pick up the slack, or even worse, you just fail to get it done at all. Instead of  assuming the best case scenario will happen, we need to build in buffers for the  unexpected events. That way, instead of forcing execution at the last minute, you’re  going to have that room to readjust for those swerves in the road. It sounds really  easy, but is it? How can we build these buffers in?  

 It’s always good to create cushions for ourselves as I’ve said, because it allows  us a space to grow and react. This works for time and it works for money. Let me give  you an example of a time when I have built buffers into my own life. When John and I  met, I owned my own home, and he was renting a place. Through his schooling, he  had incurred quite a bit of credit card debt because he had to pay for a lot of his own  schooling. I firmly believe in living a debt free life. He and I made an agreement  together. We decided that I was going to continue paying my mortgage and paying  

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for all the major bills for both of us out of my teacher salary, because I was working  as a teacher at the time.  

 I paid for those bills, and he was focusing on taking all of his money he was  making at his job to pay off his credit card debt. By the time we got married, we  started our marriage living debt free, which was a great way for us to start together.  Well, within a year, we were continuing to live with just that one teacher salary. We  decided we wanted to give ourself that buffer in case something came up. Within a  year, John decided he wanted to quit his job and go get his MBA. Again, we lived for  the next couple of years on my teacher salary. It wasn’t an adjustment at all, because  we were already use to living on that little salary for both of us, and it was okay.  

 From that time on, we continued living on a one salary. Even though we were a  family, we lived on one salary. Then, when things cropped up that we did not plan for  at all, we were better able to adjust for them. An example of that was infertility. We  did not anticipate having to have so many infertility treatments or having invitro  surgery twice, which if you’ve ever been through it, you know that is very expensive.  We were able to do that because we’d created these buffers for ourselves. We were  consistently socking away one person’s salary while living off of just the one other  person’s salary. It allowed us to get the invitro treatments and therefore get my  daughter, Kate, here without incurring a lot more debt.  

 That is the beauty of those buffers is they allow us to adjust when we need to.  This explains why there are companies that have thrived in extreme or difficult  conditions while others have not. These successful businesses do not have any better  ability to predict the future than anyone else, but they’re just the ones who  acknowledge they cannot predict the unexpected. Therefore, they prepare better. It’s  all about preparation. The first step is to really take a good, hard look at how you’re  doing. If you’re finding that you’re consistently missing deadlines or your timelines  are not really working out, take a step back and take a look.  

 There’s a company called Sketch Deck, which is an online design project  company, that did just that. They found they were consistently underestimating their  project timelines. 67% of the time, they were failing to meet their deadlines. They  took the time to look at 70,000 hours of design work to find out why their timelines  were consistently being underestimated. The result of their findings were interesting,  because for each step in the project, they found there was a 50% chance of  completion on or before the deadline. That sounds pretty good, right? Let’s look at it  the other way.  

 That means there’s a 50% chance of it not being completed in time. Then, that  just keeps compounding. The second step, again, there’s a 50% chance you’re not  going to make it on your timeline, so then, there’s a 25% chance of actually making  your final deadline. With each step, it keeps compounding. If your project has three  steps, 12.5% chance of finishing it on the timeline you have set. We want to believe  that the steps where we get done ahead of time are going to make up for those steps  right? You’re not really finishing 50% faster necessarily.  

 That make up time you’re getting is just slivers. We have to remember to not  be overly optimistic. Just like we talked about with that time you went to work and it  

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took you 20 minutes, we can’t think about that. We have to think about that would be  great if we got there in 20 minutes, but it’s probably going to take us really the 30  minutes, right? That’s our norm. That’s what you have to do with your cushions and  your buffers is allowing yourself that space for what’s realistic. If you have a project  that has two steps and each one of those steps takes two hours, there is a really good  chance you’re not going to be done in four hours. I know this seems unsettling to  thing, “It should just take me two hours,” but you have to allot for the things that you  don’t normal anticipate.  

 I’ve got a little exercise for you to go through. If you go to inkwellpress.com/ podcast and you look under episode 18, you’ll see an exercise to go through to help  figure out how to find the cushions for your time and figure out where you are  underestimating your time. The solution, honestly, is really pretty simple. That’s the  good news. It’s simple because really if you add a 50% buffer to the time you  estimate, you’re going to be in much better shape. Now, 50% may sound really  generous, but consider how frequently things actually do take us 50% longer than  expected.  

 If it takes you an estimated 10 minutes to get your child to soccer practice,  leave the house 15 minutes before you need to get there. Having that five minutes of  buffer will relieve the stress of being late. If you get caught in traffic, you’ve got time  built in for that. Sometimes you get halfway down the road and you realize your kid’s  forgotten their soccer cleats and you have to go back. That allots for that. You’ll find  the task is easier and faster to execute than expected. That extra time is going to feel  like a bonus that you can bank up. If you’re saying, “Okay, that’s great, but what do I  do if I get there in 10 minutes? I get there early. What am I supposed to do with that  time?”  

 That’s bonus time right there. That’s your time to bring something to read or  get prepared for the task ahead of you. With that extra time, a lot of times I like to  center myself and prepare for what I’m getting ready to do. I also like to use those  little hidden moments as time to have conversations with my kids, because I have  them trapped in the car and we can have a conversation. I use that time, too, to check  in with social media. I don’t allow myself time to check in on social media except for  when I have those little buffer moments that are my bonuses. That’s my time to check  in.  

 Again, I would encourage you to download our exercise to see where you can  find your buffer time at inkwellpress.com/podcast under episode 18. I think you’ll find  that really helpful. Time blocking is often presented as the answer for getting things  done. Having done that exercise, this is going to allow you to time block in a way  that’s really appropriate for the time you need. Now, I love time blocking because I  really think it allows you to focus in your time, but if you’re falling victim to this  planning fallacy where you’re always underestimating your time, you’re going to feel  behind each and every day.  

 I think this fits in a lot with what we talked about back in episode 12 when we  talked about creating your ideal planning system, planning each day as it comes. That  way, you’re able to adjust for the unexpected. If you’re planning out your entire week  on Sunday, when you get behind on, let’s say, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and  

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Friday all already feel behind. It doesn’t feel good. Really, making sure you have these  buffers by adding 50% of your time estimate for each task and then planning each  day as it comes will really help you figure out how to get things done in the way that  works best for you.  

 When you have extra time because of these buffers, we are going to be  banking that up to use later on. I’ve already planned out an entire episode where we  talk about banking our time later on as part of season two. The other thing we really  want to do is avoid the one more thing-itus, which is you know what that is. It’s when  you go, “Oh, I can get one more thing done,” right? If you start putting buffers in and  you’re about to leave work when you realize you have to take out the trash, you don’t  want to remember it later and you think, “I’ll just do it now. I have this buffer built in.  It’ll only take me a minute.” Then, as you go to take the trash out, you drop the bag, it  splits, and then you have to clean it up. The dog starts running around.  

 You get where I’m going here, right? Everything ends up taking longer than  anticipated. Your buffers are not there for you to squeeze in one more thing. They’re  built in so you can get your task that you planned done faster. Then, once you’ve  gotten the task finished, then you have your buffer time. Now, what I like to do with  the one more thing issue, because we all have that, is I use my personal assistant to  help me set a reminder. I think most of us have a personal assistant. My personal  assistant is called Siri. Yours might be called Cortana, might be called Alexa, but I  simply do a, “Hey, Siri, I need you to set a reminder that when I get home, I need to  take out the trash.”  

 Lo and behold, my personal assistant reminds me when I come back home to  take out the trash. That’s my way of getting rid of that one more thingitus, because  one more thing turns into one more thing turns into another thing, and before you  know it, you’re behind. Make sure that when you’re setting these buffers in for  yourself, it’s really for the task as hand and not for you to squeeze in one more thing.  When you have these buffers built into your schedule, you’re going to find that you  can slow down a little bit and you can actually breath and enjoy these activities and  tasks you need to do. When you have a ton of things on your plate, you feel  overwhelmed, and you’ll be inclined to speed up and go faster, which seems efficient,  but it’s not effective.  

 There’s a really big difference. When you’re rushing around, those are the times  where you spill a drink or you leave your credit card at the counter or you leave your  keys somewhere or you forget something in the car or you get into a car accident,  even worse. That’s because you’re rushing. We really want to create these buffers so  we have that space to slow down and really do our best. In those cases where you’re  rushing, it actually costs you more time and money than if you had actually slowed  down. We really want to slow down our lives to be able to enjoy the things we’re  working on in the moment. I often say overwhelm is not having too much to do. It’s  really not knowing where to start.  

 No matter how little time you have, take a few minutes, write down your tasks,  and figure out where it is you want to start. I think Benjamin Franklin said it best  when he said, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” That’s where our buffers come in,  because when we’re creating a plan with these buffers, we had this space to do our  

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best work and to feel really good about it. Try to remember in these rushed moments  to try to slow down, and you’ll see that in the short run, it feels like you’re going really  slow, but you’re really looking at the long game. How is this going to help you  throughout your day?  

 When you build in buffers, you’re going to be reaping in some serious  advantages: not feeling overwhelmed with a packed schedule, feeling more confident  because you’re not letting tasks fall between the cracks, and you can be sure that  what you’re doing is important to you rather than whatever pops up. You’re going to  fell much more proactive rather than reactive. That’s a really good way to feel. We  have to accept the reality that we can never fully prepare or anticipate for every  single scenario. The future is far too unpredictable.  

 Instead, building in these buffers will reduce that friction caused by the  unexpected. I love the quote by Bill Gates, but I modified it a little bit. I like to say,  “We overestimate how much we can get done in a day, but we underestimate how  much we can do in a year.” Once you have your buffers in place, that’s really going to  give you the space to plan, because we want to stop overestimating how much we  can get done in a day. We want to start really estimating accurately so we can  estimate what we can get done in a year. I really want to encourage you to get that  free download that I have at inkwellpress.com/podcast under episode 18 so you can  start really figuring out how much time it is taking you to do these different tasks so  we can start building these buffers into your timeline and into your day.  

 I think you’re going to find that when you slow down and you take the time to  enjoy the tasks, you’re going to be much happier. Okay. I’d love to see how you’re  doing. Feel free to tag me on social media. You can find me on Facebook and  Instagram using the username inkwellpress. You can send me a note at  hello@inkwellpress.com. I’ve gotten so many nice notes from so many of you about  how you’re implementing a lot of the streamlining into your lives, and that makes me  really, really happy. Until next time, happy planning. 

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**This transcript is created by AI, so please excuse any typos, misspellings and grammar mistakes.

Tanya Dalton is an inspirational female keynote speaker. She has been called one of the best woman speakers on productivity, time management, goal setting and finding purpose.