overcommitment

Overcommitment is the condition of taking on more obligations, tasks, or resources than can be sustained. It can apply to people, organizations, or systems, and is often driven by high motivation, pressure, or misaligned incentives. It is typically characterized by excessive involvement and difficulty disengaging from commitments.

In psychology and occupational health, overcommitment is a trait described within models of work-related stress, such as the effort-reward imbalance model. Individuals with high overcommitment tend to be intensely devoted to work, feel compelled to perform, and have trouble relaxing or setting boundaries. This pattern can increase stress and burnout risk, particularly when combined with high effort and low reward.

In organizational contexts, overcommitment occurs when individuals or teams take on more work than their capacity allows. Consequences include missed deadlines, lower quality, and greater risk of errors or accidents. Mitigation involves realistic workload assessment, clear prioritization, task delegation, and explicit boundary setting to align commitments with available resources.

In computing, memory overcommitment refers to allocating more virtual memory to processes than there is physical RAM. This can improve resource utilization but may lead to swapping and degraded performance if demand exceeds supply, requiring monitoring, memory management techniques, and sometimes limits on allocation.

Mitigation strategies across domains emphasize workload transparency, capacity planning, and a culture that supports sustainable pacing and open communication. Regular reviews of tasks, realistic goal-setting, and boundaries help reduce overcommitment and its adverse effects on performance and well-being.