This week I was in Slovakia for the first time, where I gave a keynote and met my local publisher.
We had a great conversation, and at one point we started talking about something almost everyone seems to say: “Next month will be less busy,” or “I just need to push through one more week.”
I realized I say this all the time. There’s always some reason why this particular month is unusually intense: a deadline, a trip, a launch. And somehow, the month after that always looks wonderfully empty until, of course, when that next month arrives, it usually isn’t.
The reason why we do this is a psychological phenomenon you could call the future-self fallacy. Studies show that we tend to imagine our future selves as having more time and capacity than we do today.
And when we look at the future, we see the empty spaces in the calendar, but not the requests, delays, problems and new commitments that will eventually fill them.
Another reason this fallacy is so prevalent is that it gives our stress a finite horizon. While “I have to live like this indefinitely” would be frightening, “I just need to make it until next Friday” feels manageable.
That’s how we end up turning chronic overload into a series of what we think are temporary sprints, and we keep borrowing from our future capacity. So how do we break the cycle?
1. Start treating exhaustion as a signal. We tend to treat exhaustion as an exception, assuming the problem is this particular month, rather than information we can use to take action. If you have been saying “just one more week” for six weeks, something about the system needs to change.
2. Plan for your real future self. Assume that next week you will have roughly the same energy, distractions and unexpected problems you have today, and leave room accordingly. Timeshielding is my favorite way to do this.
3. Stop postponing life itself. Rest, exercise, friends, reading, thinking… Do not get these things scheduled for the mythical quieter month ahead. Make space for the parts of your life that matter to you right now, whether that’s a good book, a long walk, or a coffee chat.
There will always be unusually busy periods, and sometimes we really do need to push through. But the most important thing we can do for our future self is not believe they will magically cope with more.
Tiny Experiment of the Week
Try this week’s tiny experiment to plan for your real future self and not your idealized one:
I will [protect one block of unscheduled time every day] for [1 week].
This will help you create a little breathing room instead of planning every week at full capacity. Want to learn how to run tiny experiments in all areas of your life and work? Get your copy of Tiny Experiments.