Will it Take Forever?

Written By Shannon Simoneau

Realistic Times

Do you know how long it takes for you to complete a task? Or do you instead vastly overestimate or underestimate the time it takes for a task to be completed? Do you put off doing things because they will “take too long”? Do you start a project and have to abandon it halfway through because you didn’t allow enough time to complete it? Let’s see if we can help you to get a better handle on how long it will take YOU to do tasks so that you will feel more confident in doing them.

I want to start with my biggest culprit, the dishes. At the end of the day I dread doing the dishes. Why? Because I always think it’s going to take forever (not a real time) and be so difficult. One day I was texting with a friend and she suggested that I time myself to see how long it actually takes me to finish the dishes. Do you know what I found out? It does not, in fact, take forever (again, not a real time) to do the dishes. It takes less than 10 minutes. Yes, less than 10 minutes.

Here are some tasks that it would benefit you to know how long it takes. Maybe you want to print out this post. If you’d like to also become a little more self-aware, start by putting a guess at how long it will take you. Then, actually time yourself and write down that time as well. How did you do?

  • the dishes

  • the laundry (break it up if you need to: wash, dry, fold, put away)

  • making dinner (this will vary by meal)

  • making your bed

  • cleaning the bathroom

  • cleaning the kitchen

  • vacuuming the house

  • mopping the floors

  • picking up the living room

  • mowing the lawn

  • watering the plants

  • going through the kitchen desk drawer (okay, maybe you call it a junk drawer but you know how I feel)

  • driving to any location* include the walk time after you park

How did you do? Are you an underestimater? Are you an overestimater? Did it depend on the task? I hope this is a helpful tool for you to be able to get things done more easily. And for those of you, like me, who still don’t want to do the task even though you know it won’t take as long: Just do the thing. (I constantly have to tell myself, “Shannon, just do the dishes.”)

*This may not be something that you typically think about but it is vital to know how long it actually takes you to get somewhere and then how long it takes for you to get to where you need to be after you park. If you are driving to work and it takes you 15 minutes to get there you cannot leave your house 15 minutes before you start work. At the very least you should leave 20 minutes before you start just to get from the car to your desk. If you work in a larger building you may need to give yourself 15 minutes to get from your car to your desk. Think about potential high traffic times. And, please, don’t rely on GPS to tell you how long it will take especially on longer drives as it almost always underestimates drive time.

Shannon Simoneau
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