Part of reversing what we’ve been indoctrinated with (work harder, not smarter) is to see the deadlines you set for yourself as unbreakable-just like the deadlines your boss or clients set. You have to see making the time limit as crucial. Then give yourself half that time to complete each task. Running Against the ClockĪs you get started with Parkinson’s Law, make a list of your tasks, and divide them up by the amount of time it takes to complete them. This is relevant whether you work in an office or at home, since “work harder, not smarter” is a cultural idea that many individuals fall prey to even when nobody’s supervising their work. Let’s look at a few ways you can apply Parkinson’s Law to your life, get your to-do list checked off quicker, and spend less of the work day filling in time just to look busy. Thankfully, the increasing trend of telecommuted employment is changing this for those lucky early adopters, but only because employers have no idea what you’re doing with all that spare time! That’s related to the idea that the longer something takes to complete, the better quality it must inherently be. Most employees who defy the unwritten rule of “work harder, not smarter” know that, despite the greater return on investment for the company, it’s not always appreciated. People don’t become fully aware of how quickly some tasks can be completed until they test this principle. It works because people give tasks longer than they really need, sometimes because they want some “leg room” or buffer, but usually because they have an inflated idea of how long the task takes to complete. However, Parkinson’s Law is simply an observation, not some voodoo magic. I once read a response to Parkinson’s Law insinuating that if it were an accurate observation, one would be able to assign a time limit of one minute to a task, and the task would become simple enough to complete within that minute. It may not even fill the extra time with more work, but just stress and tension about having to get it done. Parkinson’s Law- the amount of work expands to fill the time available for its completion -means that if you give yourself a week to complete a two-hour task, then (psychologically speaking) the task will increase in complexity and become more daunting so as to fill that week. Bureaucracy itself is a by-product of our culture, thanks to the limiting belief that working harder is somehow better than working smarter and faster. Parkinson was qualified to make such a statement, having worked in the British Civil Service and seeing first hand how bureaucracy ticks. This interesting statement was made by Cyril Northcote Parkinson, the famous British historian and author, in 1955-first appearing as the opening line in an article for The Economist and later becoming the focus of one of Parkinson’s books, Parkinson’s Law: The Pursuit of Progress. If you’re into productivity, you’ll know this proverb as Parkinson’s Law. Work expands to fill the period of time available for its completion.