Today I want to draw your attention to a little law called Parkinson’s law. It was originally published by Professor Cyril Northcote Parkinson in a series of essays in 1955. This disturbing rule is surprisingly insightful and is something that you should consider when undertaking any new project.
The rule is articulated as follows:
“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” - Cyril Northcote Parkinson
This isn’t the first time this rule I’ve come across this rule. In fact it’s been written about many times since it was first published in contexts of effectiveness.
Tim Ferriss wrote about it very succinctly in his book The 4-Hour work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
“Parkinson’s Law dictates that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. It is the magic of the imminent deadline. […] The end product of the shorter deadline is almost inevitably of equal or higher quality due to greater focus.”
The shorter the deadline, the greater the focus, the more likely the chances of completion are.
We’ve all been there I’m sure, sculling coffee and staying up all night trying to finish that assignment that’s due in a couple of hours. This is exactly what the rule is about. The end result of the project is usually of similar quality than if you spaced it out to fill the entire time allotted.
It always used to annoy me when I would painstakingly spend a week on an assignment, have it done on the night it was due, then realise my friends were achieving similar marks on assignments thrown together in a matter of hours.
What the hell?! Why?
According to Parkinson, the problem is we perceive a task to be so far away as to not worry about it and put it off.
The task then grows so large in our minds that it seems as though we will actually need the entire time given in order to complete it.
Things start happening like debating minutiae of the task and talking about unimportant factors. Before we know it, the time is gone and the project (and possibly your business) is dead. Yep, it’s a project killer.
Identifying Parkinson’s Law In Yourself
Specifically when it comes to setting up multiple streams of income, we are all guilty of accepting Parkinson’s Law into our lives at some time (and if you’re not, good on you – you must be loaded by now).
How many times have we stated to friends or family that we’ve had a stroke of genius, and if we could just find the time to do this wonderful project we could start that business and make it rich?
It happens all the time, and I’m totally guilty of it myself.
As an example, here’s a confession for you: I’ve half written so any eBooks it’s not funny. They just call get thrown on the back burner and I never get back to them. The catch is, the majority of the content for these books, I usually write in one day!
Parkinson’s Law strikes again.
I could be selling my eBooks by now and making money, but instead I’ve let these tasks swell and now it seems the book is never ending.
How Can We Combat Parkinson’s Law?
I like to try to combat Parkinson’s law in a couple of ways.
First, I tend to begin work straight away, and set myself a shorter deadline than the advised time. To do lists come in handy for this.
This allows me to begin the work and complete it to a standard up to 80% or more of what is required in a much shorter time period.
The second way, is to leave it to the last minute. Since I’m not very good at dealing with stress in a situation like this (although, I always cope when forced into it), I tend to use the first strategy most of the time unless I have to just jump right in.
When you start setting your own deadlines, you begin to realise you have more free time than originally perceived (thank Parkinson’s law, that’s one of the good things!). Only you can determine when the result is acceptable enough to move on in a shorter time frame but keep in mind that most tasks don’t take that long.
An assignment can be written in a night, a program can be developed in a couple of days if you need to, and no one need to be the wiser.
Conclusion
While it’s easy to sit here and point out the fact that Parkinson’s law effects us all in ways we don’t truly see until the time is past that we need to do more about correcting it’s effects.
Early identification is the key. Set your own deadlines instead of someone else setting them for you.
So stop procrastinating, and debating the minutiae of the task as hand, and do like Nike says: “Just Do It”.
Photo Credit: alicejamieson
