Teaching · For Tutors

Guess how long.
Then time it.

Before a task, say how many minutes it will take. Time it, look at the gap, and after a few rounds the page shows which kinds of work run long for you and by how much, so tonight’s plan uses your own numbers.

Time a taskWhat you get

The estimation tool

The worked example is a made-up student’s two weeks: 14 timed tasks, 6 guesses inside 20%. Start blank to keep your own.

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What you get

Teaching · For TutorsAlso for Teaching · Special EducationAlso for Academics · Study SkillsAlso for Academics · Subject ResourcesFree

What you finish with
A log of guesses beside the time each task took; a multiplier for each kind of task (how many times the guess it tends to take) once three are timed; the count of close guesses, compared between the first and second half of the log; a chart of every miss; a plan that turns tonight’s guesses into realistic minutes with a finish time; and a quick drill for a sense of 10, 30 and 60 seconds. Prints a summary and a plan sheet; downloads the log as a spreadsheet.
Who it is for
Students from about grade 4 through college who run out of time or finish far too early; tutors, executive function and academic coaches at a school or in private practice, special education teachers and families working with them. In the mode for a tutor or teacher the log is kept by student code and the page refuses a name.
Format
Browser tool with an on-screen clock that can stay hidden. Prints a summary and a plan sheet; downloads the log (.csv); export and import a file.
Access
Free. No account, no sign-in and nothing to install. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The For Tutors space in Caveat Teaching; also listed for Special Education (executive function practice with a student code); also listed for Study Skills (the mode for a student working alone); also listed for Subject Resources (families planning homework time).
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Choose who is using the page. With a tutor or teacher, enter a student code first.
  2. Name the task, pick its kind, and commit to a guess in minutes. Start the clock and do the task; press Done the moment it is finished.
  3. Look at the gap, then do it again tomorrow. Tasks timed another way go in through the Log.
  4. After three timed tasks of one kind, open Patterns for the multiplier and the count of close guesses.
  5. Open Plan, list tonight’s tasks with a guess for each, and read the finish time built from your own pattern.

Time a task

How the numbers are worked out

Three pieces of arithmetic, shown with the worked example.

1 One timed taskGuessed20 minTook29:00The gap: 9 min ÷ 29 min = 31% of the time it took.Over 20%, so not a close guess.2 The multiplier for one kind of taskWriting, 4 timed tasks117:40 ÷ 80 mintime taken ÷ time guessedMultiplier× 1.47writing takes about 1.5 times the guess3 Plan with itHistory paragraph, guessed 15 min15 × 1.47 = 22.1, so plan 22 minguess × multiplier, rounded to the minute1 One timed taskGuessed20 minTook29:009 ÷ 29 = 31% of the time it took.Over 20%, so not a close guess.2 The multiplier for a kind of taskWriting, 4 timed tasks117:40 ÷ 80 min = 1.47time taken ÷ time guessed3 Plan with itHistory paragraph, guessed 15 min15 × 1.47 → 22 minguess × multiplier, rounded
From the worked example: one history paragraph guessed at 20 minutes took 29:00; four writing tasks took 117:40 against 80 minutes guessed, a multiplier of 1.47; so a 15-minute writing guess goes into the plan as 22 minutes.

The gap and the close guess

For each task the page compares the guess with the time taken. The miss is the difference divided by the time taken; a guess is close when the miss is inside the tolerance, 20 percent unless you change it. The tolerance is this page’s working rule, not a published standard.

The multiplier for a kind of task is the total time taken divided by the total time guessed over the last ten timed tasks of that kind. Three are needed before it is shown. Above 1.0 the work runs long; below, it runs short.

Why practice with feedback

People tend to underestimate how long their own tasks will take, a pattern Kahneman and Tversky named the planning fallacy. In one study by Buehler, Griffin and Ross, students expected to finish a thesis in 33.9 days on average and took 55.5; about 30 percent finished in the time they predicted.

Roy, Christenfeld and McKenzie argue that one cause is memory: people recall past tasks as shorter than they were, so their predictions start from the wrong number. Writing down the guess and the real time replaces that memory with a record, which is all this page does.

What it cannot tell you

The multiplier describes the tasks that were timed. A new kind of assignment, a hard chapter or a noisy room can break the pattern. The drill for 10, 30 and 60 seconds is a warm-up; no claim is made that it transfers to homework. Nothing here measures attention or diagnoses anything.

Sources

  1. Buehler, R., Griffin, D., & Ross, M. (1994). Exploring the “planning fallacy”: Why people underestimate their task completion times. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(3), 366–381. The thesis figures quoted above.
  2. Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). Intuitive prediction: Biases and corrective procedures. TIMS Studies in Management Science, 12, 313–327. The planning fallacy.
  3. Roy, M. M., Christenfeld, N. J. S., & McKenzie, C. R. M. (2005). Underestimating the duration of future events: Memory incorrectly used or memory bias? Psychological Bulletin, 131(5), 738–756.
  4. Roy, M. M., Mitten, S. T., & Christenfeld, N. J. S. (2008). Correcting memory improves accuracy of predicted task duration. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 14(3), 266–275.
  5. Dawson, P., & Guare, R. (2018). Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents (3rd ed.). Guilford Press. Time management as an executive skill that is taught and practiced.

The worked example is made up, and so are its tasks and times. A multiplier is a description of past timings, not a prediction that will always hold, and this page is practice, not an assessment. Timings stay in this browser. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.