Interlude: Time Optimism, Hyphens as Screws, and the Peer-Review Crisis
Have you ever given yourself a day to complete a task that should take only a few hours, and somehow you end up taking the whole day to complete it?
This is Parkinson’s Law at play.
Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time available. This expansion can drain your productivity because you’ll take more time to complete a task than needed.
However, Parkinson’s Law can also lead to a bigger problem: the opposite—and faulty—belief that if you shrink the time you have available, you can complete the task in a shorter amount of time. For example, if you have a 1-hour task and 30 minutes to complete it, then you will take 30 minutes to complete the task.
This faulty belief can lead to time optimism, where we underestimate the scope of the task or time needed to complete it—which can lead to bottlenecks, poor quality work, and burnout.
According to a 2026 report, 34.8% of leaders identify as Time Optimists who consistently underestimate the workload and contribute to bottlenecks. Although this percentage applies to leaders (eg, CEOs), I know that many of us have identified as Time Optimists. And when we struggle to complete tasks in a shorter amount of time than needed, we might think that we are not disciplined enough.
But time optimism isn’t a discipline problem. It’s a misjudgment problem.
The good news is that once you recognize this, you know what direction to take to address it. You don’t need to be more disciplined, focused, or perseverant. You need to estimate more realistically, add buffer time to that estimate, and even track how long tasks actually take you to complete so you can estimate better in the future.
I’m working on this myself. Time optimism hit me hard over the past couple of years. I’d block an hour for something that really needed a few hours and then wonder why I was always behind. Tracking my actual time—and comparing it to my estimated time—helped me see the pattern.
So the next time you think a task will only take an hour, ask yourself whether that estimate is based on evidence or optimism.
Are you a time optimist? Hit reply. I’d love to hear your story.
Now onto this week's round-up...
Round-up
Reading
17 Kinds of Hyphens You Need to Know About… Yes, 17!
”Hyphens are like little screws that hold words together. Now, if you’ve ever gone to a hardware store to buy screws, you know that there are a lot of different kinds of screws. But hyphens? They all look the same – well, within any specific font, anyway.” Read on to learn the 17 kinds of hyphens.
Can AI help solve the peer-review crisis? Here are its promises and pitfalls
I couldn’t settle on just one or two quotes from this article. It was packed with interesting findings and insights. I highly recommend grabbing your favorite beverage and reading the whole thing. Or if you’d prefer to listen to it, you can also select that option on the web page.
Watching
Rough Draft vs Final Draft
In the Instagram Reel, Elle Cordova shares a fun skit on a conversation between a rough draft and final draft—and the end made me laugh out loud. This short video is a must watch.
Tools
SCSIR database
While catching up with a client this week, I learned that their grant was recently terminated (yes, this is still happening). If you or a colleague are in the same boat, I want to remind you that the Science Communicators Supporting Impacted Researchers (SCSIR) Database is still up and running. This free resource connects science communicators who are willing to offer pro bono services to researchers whose federal grants were terminated.
Quote
"Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks." – Warren Buffet
Thank you so much for reading.
Warmly,
Crystal
