Parkinson’s Law

Do you sometimes look around and think ‘where has the day gone’? You had one thing to do and somehow seemed to take all day to do it. You are confused. Like someone has came into your home or work and stolen the disciplined version of you. You look back over the day and realise that it was all you, you made the thing – task or activity – fit the time you gave it. You gave it all day and it took all day.

Don’t worry it’s not just you, turns out it’s a real thing.

A thing described as Parkinson’s Law. The law that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion. It is a term first coined by Cyril Northcote Parkinson, hence the name, in an essay he wrote for “The Economist” in 1955. He shares the story of a woman whose only task in a day is to send a postcard – a task which would take a busy person approximately three minutes. But the woman spends an hour finding the card, another half hour looking for her glasses, 90 minutes writing the card, 20 minutes deciding whether or not to take an umbrella along on her walk to the mailbox … and on and on until her day is filled.

When written like this, it seems outrageous. But then as we pause, we realise we can all relate to it. I know I can. Sometimes it creeps up on you, and you need to double-check the time. Wondering to yourself  “where has the time gone”.

In summary, Parkinson law is where people will take as long as they have to complete a task. Even if they could complete it quicker, they seem to eek out the task, a mixture of distractions, procrastinating and somehow making the task more complex than required.

You’re about to clean, then you realise you need cleaning products so end up leaving your home to head to the shops. While at the shops you spend a mini fortune buying all the snazzy cleaning products labelled to make us think they have super powers. Then the procrastination continues. When you arrive home you feel peckish so you make lunch, tidy away the lunch mess in the kitchen, wash up, check your phone for any notifications, a quick 20 minute scroll on social media, then you look at your watch to consider starting to clean to realise literally hours and hours have passed. “Where has the time gone?” You mutter.

I know what you’re thinking, it sounds pretty unproductive and not very efficient. Correct, it sure is. Therefore it’s important we catch it! Or hours, and even whole days will be lost...never to be seen again.

A spare three hours turns into three hours cleaning your home, even if you could blast it out in one hour of focussed time. Those three hours are probably filled with pockets of lost time where you are distracted, very distracted. If you work in 25 minute bursts, with a 5min break, then you would blitz through it. Probably with two hours spare to play.

At work a simple task ends up taking hours, even days. It somehow grows arms and legs, also known as complexity, then you put it off until the last minute and realise you don’t have all the information you need so you are now fighting an uphill battle. We turn something straight forward into chaos all to feel stressed, to jerk ourselves into action.

To overcome this scenario start the thing now. Identify one small part you can tackle, start small to build momentum. Analyze the task at hand and create mini-milestones then check in on your progress each day to keep yourself accountable. To take the accountability further tell someone your plan and planned completion date.

Here are three tips to fight and conquer Parkinsons Law;

1.       Each morning set an intention linked to what you need to achieve and how you will achieve it. You are signposting how you want to show up!

a.       Today I will focus on my to do list by removing all distractions

b.       I will keep energized with frequent breaks as a focus on my number one work task

2.       Schedule your day so there are no surprises with the time you have available to do what you need to do – timebox your activities into manageable chunks

3.       Flow with the day using the Pomodoro technique – 25 minutes of focussed work with a 5 minute break (preferably non tech).

By mindful of how your busy distraction seeking mind will try and sabotage you and steal your time