As a creative, you wear many hats. Not only are you responsible for your craft, but you’re also often required to take on other roles (that you might not have bargained for…) too. One of the most common of these is project manager. This is especially the case when you’re working on a larger project, whether that’s a book, an album, a review—anything that requires multiple pieces coming together at the same time. While some of us might love this aspect of creative work, for others of us, it might not be something that comes naturally. In this week’s post, I want to talk about a cognitive bias (an error in thinking) that can affect this aspect of creative work—the planning fallacy—and share a few practical tips you can use to overcome this issue in your creative work.
What is the planning fallacy?
The planning fallacy is a cognitive bias that describes our tendency to underestimate the time, resources, or effort required to complete a project. This might not matter much in some situations, but when you’re working to a deadline, budget, or in partnership with others, it can wreak havoc. One factor that contributes to the planning fallacy is having limited information about a project when starting out—and if that doesn’t describe most big creative projects, I don’t know what does. Yes, we might create an outline for a book, but it’s not uncommon to reach a certain point and have to go back to rework that outline. Many creative projects evolve as we work on them and the finished product can look quite different to what we envisioned when we started.
Another factor that contributes to the planning fallacy is being over-optimistic about our ability to get things done within a certain timeframe. We might also be influenced by group dynamics: if someone else wrote a book in a month, we can do it too, right?! This is the rub with creative communities. While it’s great to have support from people who are walking a similar path, we also need to be wary of modelling our creative working life on theirs when that approach doesn’t actually work for us. We might feel pressure to conform or to present a positive image to other people in the group, both of which can override our common sense and cause the planning fallacy to kick in.
How to deal with the planning fallacy in your creative work
The good thing about cognitive biases is that, for the most part, once we’re aware of them, we are more likely to be aware of when we’re engaging in them. If you’re reading this and have experienced the negative effects of the planning fallacy in the past, here are a few ways you can approach a project differently in the future:
1. Break projects into smaller tasks
One way to summarise the difference between a task and a project is that a task is a single action step, whereas a project is anything that requires more than one action. One of the most common causes of time management issues is when we treat projects like tasks, realise there are far more steps involved than we previously realised, then wonder why everything is taking longer than we thought it would. Examining each project and breaking it down into its component tasks (i.e. single action steps) makes it much easier to estimate how much time things will really take. It’s helpful to get into the habit of making sure a task really is a task and not a project in disguise.
2. Use a project management tool or task manager
Before I begin a new project, I break it down as above using a task manager (I use and love this one). Being able to visualise all the different components involved in a project makes it much easier to see in which order I should do things and make an estimate of how long things will take, what I need to budget for, and so on. You can also keep track of deadlines and milestones, so if there is a delay or something is taking longer than planned, you can see this and course correct early on.
3. Set a realistic deadline and stick to it
Another factor that can influence the planning fallacy is Parkinson’s Law, which states that work expands to fill the time available. If we want to write 100 words of our novel and we give ourselves 20 minutes, it will probably take 20 minutes. If we give ourselves five minutes, we’ll probably get it done within five minutes. Setting deadlines can help can help counteract this and prevent projects expanding into infinity. The realistic part is important though, as consistently setting then missing deadlines won’t help. A handy rule of thumb is to decide how long you think something will take, then add half that amount of time again. That’s your realistic deadline 🙂
4. Do a “Pre-Mortem”
Imagine that your project has failed, overrun, gone over budget, and ask yourself what went wrong and why. Thinking about these potential pitfalls (and solutions) now makes it less likely they’ll take you by surprise if they crop up further along.
5. Learn from past experiences
Reflect on past projects and consider what worked well and what didn’t. Was there a particular point in the creative process you got stuck? Was there something that took more time than expected? Was there something that took less time? Was there anything you should have started earlier in the process? If you worked with other people on part or all of the project, how did this influence your time and budget estimates? Use this information to improve your planning and time management for the future.
Ready to create habits that will help you become a more confident creative? Try the free Creative Confidence Challenge! This free email course offers daily inspiration and practical advice for overcoming obstacles to creative work and making creativity a habit. Register here.
