In 1995, a frustrated computer programmer coined the term anti-patterns to describe something you’ve probably experienced multiple times: a fix for a problem that looks right in the moment, but sabotages you in the long term.
Back-to-back scheduling feels productive, until burnout hits. Gut estimation feels fast, until margins disappear. All-in-one tools feel convenient, until you miss critical information.
The defaults we fall back on under pressure quietly shape how we work. Eventually, they can become habits that damage efficiency, profitability, and team morale.
Anti-patterns can be broken, though. With the second half of the year underway, now’s a good time to identify yours and replace them with practices that actually work.
1. Anti-pattern #1: relying on tools that weren’t built for the job
Most teams resource in a spreadsheet or an existing all-in-one tool. That's a good start—but once team and complexity grow, the critical data you need around availability, utilization, and cost rates becomes hidden, unavailable, or just really hard to piece together.
With information scattered or incomplete, it’s easy to underutilize, over-outsource, and lose your margins (and maybe your mind a little, too).
How to break the (anti-)pattern → consider using a dedicated tool that gives you real-time visibility into margins, costs, budget, and capacity.
A quick example: the CEO of STORM+SHELTER, a video and animation production company, relied on multiple project scheduling and team management apps... and still couldn't get a clear view of their team's utilization. “I’ve been through the wringer with these tools,” he told us.After switching to Float, they got instant visibility into who was working on what and when, making it far easier to plan and allocate work the right way.
2. Anti-pattern #2: considering capacity as fixed instead of fluid
No one is productive every minute of a 40-hour workweek, yet most teams are expected to perform as if they were. Some of those 40 hours also go into part-time schedules, regional holidays, time off, and admin tasks, which aren’t always accounted for.
Capacity changes; but if you don’t consider these variables when allocating work, you’ll either overspend on resources or overallocate your team like this Reddit user did:
How to break the (anti-)pattern → start by determining the actual baseline of your team’s capacity, and review it often.
Justin Watt, Co-founder of Switchboard, recommends calculating every role’s available hours after factoring in things like PTO, part-time schedules, and FTE status.
<tip>
💡Pro tip
Since capacity varies, you still want to monitor it consistently even after determining your team’s baseline. The team at 1,300+ agency Scholz & Friends runs weekly capacity meetings using real-time data on utilisation and availability.
</tip>
3. Anti-pattern #3: estimating based on vibes, not data
Estimates based more on gut feel than data are the go-to method for projects with fuzzy timelines or costs. Jason Fisher, Global Studio Director at Flight Story, calls it ‘vibes estimating’.
The approach might work for a while, but when it doesn’t; your margins may already in the red.
How to break the (anti-)pattern → treat each new project as a pilot, and use it to gather data about timelines, resourcing, and profitability before committing to full-scale production. While running a new project, Fisher and his team gather data around costs and timelines, then review it to answer four questions:
- How did it go?
- What did we do well?
- What could we do better?
- Did something go critically wrong?”
You can take the same approach by tracking some data, learning from it, and improving the next estimate.
Untangling anti-patterns is hard. Do it anyway.
Anti-patterns aren’t always easy to spot or replace—but investing in the right processes and tools, even if it means slowing down first, pays off. Do it now, and you’ll spend the second half of the year with a system that better supports your people, projects, and profits.
We couldn’t have written this without:
.jpg)
