Getting a project schedule right is one of the hardest parts of being a manager. You have to balance time against scope and cost which people usually call the triple constraint. People tend to be optimistic and think they can finish tasks faster than they really can. Underestimating time is no doubt a trap that leads to burnout and missed deadlines. You need to look at and learn from past projects to make sure your guesses are actually grounded in reality.
A lot of teams use Gantt charts to to plan and schedule. These charts help you see the critical path for the project. Speaking of which, the critical path is important because any delay there will push back the entire finish date. You should focus your energy on those specific tasks to keep everything on track. I find that seeing the whole timeline in a visual manner makes it much easier to communicate with stakeholders.
Even with a good plan things like Parkinson’s Law can still ruin your schedule. This is the idea that work expands to fill whatever time you have available for its completion. If you give someone two weeks for a three day task they will likely take the full two weeks. You can fight this by using buffers at the end of the project instead of adding extra time to every single task. I believe that being tight with deadlines while keeping a safety net at the end is the best way to stay productive.
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