You think that you have more time. But you forget to consider the peripheral.

It’s the reason that you overschedule, and the cause for your underestimated timelines. It’s often the reason our carefully-considered to-do lists end up incomplete.

Even with meticulous planning, it’s easy to forget peripheral time loss. Simple things, such as bathroom breaks, coffee/water refills, and the inevitable distractions that you can’t avoid — they add up over the course of a day.

And that’s when you’re staying at the office.

When commuting is involved, things get even more chaotic. Even the best planners occasionally forget to consider surprises in traffic or, sometimes worse, an unexpected encounter with that overly chatty acquaintance on the street.

Always give yourself a buffer zone.

And on the days that things just work out right, you’ll be rewarded.