A game I play that is not mentioned in the article: give an estimate in the form of "I will not be done with this before %time." I'll often add in something abo

A game I play that is not mentioned in the article: give an estimate in the form of "I will not be done with this before %time." I'll often add in something about giving a better time estimate for the entire thing when that period of time elapses. I usually build that time estimate by imagining the whole process going smoothly. The vast majority of surprises are negative, and of unknown size, so however long the project takes, it's going to be something bigger than the everything-goes-right scenario.