Parkinson’s Law

Cyril Northcote Parkinson was a British Naval Historian and author who’s credited with an important adage that eventually became known as Parkinson’s Law:

Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

In other words, the amount of time we give ourselves to perform work will be the amount of time it takes us to complete that work.

If we enter the day giving ourselves an open-ended amount of time to work, we’re more likely to keep finding reasons to just continue to work.

Without structure, we’re not forced to concentrate as hard, projects or workdays drag on for longer than they should, and our work is much less focused.

However, when we create boundaries around our workday or work periods, we’re much more likely to spend that time in a state of focus, and more likely to complete our work in that condensed time period.

A simple way to think about this is in the context of a deadline.

When we’re up against a deadline - even though we sometimes wish we had more time - we almost always find a way to complete what we have to complete.

That’s because we approach our work with a deeper sense of focus when we create boundaries.

Boundaries are a helpful way to compress our work into well-defined time periods.

Try this:

Use this concept to add structure to your workday.

Instead of beginning the day by saying “I'm going to work on this project this afternoon,” instead say “I’m going to work on this project from 1:30 - 3:30.”

In other words, don’t start a work period without first establishing a boundary.

Being intentional about structure leads to more intentional action.

Go have a great workday.