Overscheduling

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process of arranging an excessive amount of commitments within a given timeframe
2. A scenario where one has taken on more scheduled responsibilities than can feasibly be accommodated
3. The act of planning an overwhelming number of activities that exceeds available time or capacity

Etymology: "Overscheduling" is built from "over-" and "schedule," and its history is essentially that of its two parts. "Over-" descends from an ancient root meaning "up" or "beyond," which passed through Proto-Germanic "uber" into Old English "ofer," meaning "above" or "across." Its sense of "excess" or "too much" grew out of that spatial meaning, so putting it before a verb means doing something beyond what is appropriate. "Schedule" has a more tangled journey. It came into English from Old French "cedule," a small slip or written document, which itself derived from Latin "schedula," a diminutive of "scheda," a strip of papyrus. The idea of a written list of times and tasks came later, so the word's original sense was simply a piece of paper. Joining the two gives a word meaning to assign more timed commitments than can realistically be met. The "over-" prefix is productive, so new compounds like this one can be formed whenever a speaker wants to describe excess.

Synonyms: overbooking, overcommitting

Antonyms: underbooking, freeing