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Organizing cell divisions in an embryo, especially coordinating cell cycles across larger distances, is of crucial importance for the development of an animal. Here we show that cell-cycle times and cell volumes are anti-correlated during all phases of embryogenesis in the simple model organism Caenorhabditis elegans . By revisiting and significantly extending a previously proposed model, based on a limiting component, we arrive at a quantitative agreement with the experimental data for all stages of embryogenesis. The model not only rationalizes the average anti-correlation but also captures most of the cell-to-cell variations observed in experiments. Our findings suggest that inter-cell communication may not be mandatory to coordinate cell-cycle times in the embryogenesis of C. elegans . Rather, cells in this simple organism might decide autonomously about the next mitosis event by estimating their own volume via a limiting component. Together with several asymmetric cell divisions, a rather homogenous distribution of cell sizes is obtained at the onset of gastrulation, hence facilitating the inward motion of cells during subsequent stages of development.