Count the hours your team really has next month, after meetings, leave, and the work you already promised. Compare that with what the new project needs. If the new project does not fit, you have three choices: say no, push a date, or drop something. Guessing is not one of them.
"Sure, we can fit it in"
A client asks. Your boss asks. It is a good project. You say yes because saying no feels bad and because you have not done the math. Three weeks later, everyone is working late, something else slips, and the good project is not going well either.
Saying yes without counting is not generosity. It is a loan you take out in your team's name.
Step 1: Count real hours, not calendar hours
A full-time person has about 160 hours a month on paper. They do not have 160 hours of project time. Take off:
- Meetings. For most people, 20 to 30%.
- Email, messages, and admin. Another 10 to 15%.
- Leave and holidays this month.
- Helping others, interruptions, the unexpected. At least 10%.
For a typical person, 160 hours becomes about 90 to 100 hours of real project time. For a manager, less. Write down your number per person. If you are not sure, run a one-week time audit first.
Step 2: Subtract what is already promised
List every project and recurring job your team is already doing. Estimate the hours each needs this month. Add them up. Subtract from the real hours.
What is left is your true free capacity. For many teams, the answer is "almost nothing," and that is the first time anyone has seen it.
Step 3: Estimate the new project honestly
Use three numbers: best case, likely, worst case. Here is how. Use the likely number for planning. Keep the worst case in view.
Step 4: Compare
Free capacity: 60 hours this month across the team. New project likely needs: 120 hours. It does not fit. Not "it will be tight." It does not fit.
The capacity check tool does this arithmetic and shows the gap per person, so you can see who is overloaded, not just whether the team is.
Step 5: Choose, on purpose
If it fits, say yes with confidence. If it does not, you have exactly three honest options.
- Say no, or not yet. "We can start this on the 15th of next month."
- Move a date. "We can do it now if the website refresh slips two weeks."
- Drop or shrink something. "We can do it if we pause the newsletter this month."
Any of these is a real plan. "We'll make it work" is not.
A worked example
A design team of four. Each has about 95 real hours a month, so 380 total. Already promised: the website refresh (180), the brand guidelines (90), monthly social assets (60), and support for sales (40). That is 370. Free capacity: 10 hours.
A new client wants a campaign. Likely estimate: 100 hours.
The manager shows her director the numbers. They agree to push the brand guidelines by one month, which frees 90 hours. With the 10 spare, that covers the campaign. The decision took 15 minutes. Nobody worked a weekend.
Where M-Tracker fits
In M-Tracker, projects hold tasks with estimates, and the timer records actual hours, so what is "already promised" is a real number, not a feeling. The capacity view in projects shows planned hours against available hours per person and per week. When a new request comes in, you can see where it would land before you say yes.
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