Cognitive biases
A Project Planning Worksheet to Address the Planning Fallacy
This template forces a client to break a project into parts and estimate time based on past.
When a client is great at starting projects but consistently misses their own deadlines, the cause is often the planning fallacy. Their initial optimism leads them to set unrealistic timelines, ignoring the friction and delays inherent in any real-world task. This chronic underestimation creates a cycle of last-minute crises and erodes their professional credibility or personal confidence.
This template moves the client from wishful thinking to a concrete, defensible schedule. It prompts a more rigorous form of estimation, creating a timeline that can withstand unexpected setbacks. Your client leaves the session with a realistic action plan, replacing the anxiety of an arbitrary deadline with the confidence of a well-considered forecast.
A Project Planning Worksheet to Address the Planning Fallacy
Use this worksheet for one project. Write the project name below.
Project Name: _________________________
Break the project into specific tasks in the first column. For each task, write down your initial time estimate. In the third column, describe a similar task from your past and record the actual time it took to complete. Use that past performance to create a revised time estimate in the final column. Sum the revised estimates to get your new total project time.
| Project Task | Initial Time Estimate | Similar Past Task & Actual Time Taken | Revised Time Estimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Revised Time: |
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