A
Axtio
Psychology

Why we overcommit in December, and how to stop

A
Axtio Team
October 6, 2026 ยท 3 min read

In October, December looks spacious. So you agree to finish the proposal "before the holidays", help with the end-of-year event, host family, and squeeze in that project you have been putting off. By the second week of December, all of it lands at once, on top of year-end deadlines everyone else is rushing too.

This is not bad luck. It is a predictable pattern.

Why future-you always has time

When we commit to something weeks ahead, we imagine the future in broad strokes: we see the commitment, but not the dozens of small tasks that will also fill those weeks. Psychologists have long documented this tendency to underestimate how long things take, often called the planning fallacy. We also tend to see our future selves as having more time and energy than our present selves.

December concentrates the problem. Everyone's deadlines converge, people take leave, and social obligations multiply.

The cost of a yes in October

Every yes made in October becomes an action in December. If you do not write it down when you agree, you discover it when someone asks for it. Hidden commitments are the worst kind, because you cannot plan around what you have forgotten. See open loops and anxiety.

A simple December check

Before agreeing to anything with a December deadline, look at your board:

  1. Count what is already due in December. Every action in Mine with a December date.
  2. Count what you are waiting on. Items in Other that will need your time when they come back.
  3. Count the working days. Subtract holidays and leave.

If the first two numbers do not fit the third, the honest answer to a new request is "January" or "no". See how to say no to tasks.

Move things deliberately

For commitments you already have:

  • Finish or hand off what must happen before the break.
  • Renegotiate what can wait, now, not on the 22nd.
  • Put January work in Next with a date, so it is parked rather than forgotten.

Leave real slack

Plan December at about 70% of your normal capacity. Something unexpected always arrives in the last two weeks. Slack is what lets you absorb it without working through the holiday. For limiting what you take on at once, see personal WIP limits.