A system and method of allocating tasks based on the lag of one or more execution nodes. The method includes monitoring a plurality of execution nodes of a datastore to determine a plurality of central processing unit (CPU) utilizations, each CPU utilization of the plurality of CPU utilizations is associated with a respective execution node of the plurality of execution nodes. The method includes identifying, by a processing device based on the plurality of CPU utilizations, a particular execution node associated with a maximum CPU utilization to process a task. The method includes determining a lag amount associated with the maximum CPU utilization. The method includes preventing an allocation of the task to the particular execution node for a time period that is equal to or greater than the lag amount.