Actually for your own stuff, not work, absolutely over commit. Eventually you will improve your performance to the point where you start finishing things, then

Actually for your own stuff, not work, absolutely over commit. Eventually you will improve your performance to the point where you start finishing things, then you'll be finishing lots of things, and you might even end up with the kind of productivity that most teams wish for... also you will find where your limits lie for work through experience, instead of having to guess (which programmers famously get wrong) making it easier to not under commit yourself to tasks at work. People say finishing is everything, and they are right, but like most skills finishing is not binary "yes" or "no", once you can finish things you can progress to being able to finish them better, faster and with less code. Ironically, owing to the nature of learning and the human brain in general you will have a hard time improving your finishing skills unless you regularly wind up in the situation where it is very difficult, or impossible to finish.