Underestimating the Duration of Future Events: Memory Incorrectly Used or Memory Bias?

by Roy, Michael M.; Christenfeld, Nicholas J. S.; McKenzie, Craig R. M.
from Psychological Bulletin. 2005 Sep Vol 131(5) 738-756

People frequently underestimate how long it will take them to complete a task. The prevailing view is that during the prediction process, people incorrectly use their memories of how long similar tasks have taken in the past because they take an overly optimistic outlook. A variety of evidence is reviewed in this article that points to a different, although not mutually exclusive, explanation: People base predictions of future duration on their memories of how long past events have taken, but these memories are systematic underestimates of past duration. People appear to underestimate future event duration because they underestimate past event duration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved)

The mystery resolved - now I know why I never have enough time! I am too optimistic at how long it will take me to do things and I underestimate how long it has taken me to do the same or similar task in the past! Now if only I could easily correct this, life would be so much simpler to deal with.