How to easily break the Law of Time (and why it matters)
There are laws that we all obey.
We stop at red lights, don’t steal from our neighbors, and don’t shoot each other. We also obey unwritten laws, like the Law of Gravity (because do you really have a choice?) However, there’s one law that we all tend to obey that we all need to start breaking, and that’s Parkinson’s Law.
Parkinson’s Law, first described in 1955 by British historian and Author Cyril Northcote Parkinson, states that:
“Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”
Basically, this means if you give yourself a week to finish a project, it is going to take you a week to complete your project, even if you could have done it in three days. Or if you have something that you think will take an hour to complete, it will take an hour, even though you could have done it in 20 minutes.
We overestimate how much time is needed to do a task because we don’t really know how much time it will take.
Then, because we have more time than we need, we either fill it with things we think help justify the time frame, or we misjudge how much time we really have and put off doing the task until right before the deadline. Both of which do absolutely nothing for our productivity or efficiency.
This comes as no surprise to any of us.
We use Parkinson’s Law to procrastinate.
We’ve all told ourselves, “x, y, z doesn’t have to be done until Friday. I’ll start tomorrow. Or the next day. I’ve got plenty of time.” When, if we’d just put down the remote (or phone, or controller) and taken care of x, y, z, right then, it would be finished and not looming over our heads. Unfortunately, we tend not to think that way. Thus, Parkinson’s Law.
If you could break Parkinson’s Law, you’d waste less time, and you’d get things done. Overall you’d definitely be more productive.
So let’s break the Law, shall we?
Below are three different ways you can break Parkinson’s Law. Experiment and see what works best for you.
1. Know how long it takes to do things
If you don’t know how long it takes to do something, how do you accurately plan to do them? [Don’t answer. It’s rhetorical.] The only way to prepare precisely is by knowing your data, and in this case, that means timing things. Especially things that repeatedly show up in your life. Getting ready in the morning. Working out. Driving to work. Researching. Answering emails. Making cold calls. Preparing dinner. Getting the kids into bed.
Time them all.
You probably have a good idea of how long they each take, but you don’t know for sure. So time them. Once you know this information, you can accurately plan out your time. Kind of a no brainer, right?
One of my friends timed how long it took his wife to get ready when they were going out at night. She insisted that she only took 10 minutes, but they were always late getting out the door because of her. So my friend started timing her, without her knowing about it.
Actual time? Closer to 20 minutes.
Armed with this new data, his wife was able to begin scheduling accordingly. (And no, she wasn’t mad at her husband, she actually appreciated having all the information.)
2. Plan for less time
Try giving yourself less time for tasks. Experiment and find the minimum amount of time required to do a task well. Can you do the task in 15 minutes? Does it take longer? How long? Once you know the minimum time needed for a task, much like timing a task (above), you’ll be able to plan accordingly in the future.
One hour meetings are the norm in most businesses. Why? Could all the essential info be handled in 20 minutes? Probably. Try it and find out. Do you need 10 more minutes? Experiment and find the right amount of time.
Workouts, especially at gyms, tend to be planned in one-hour increments, but honestly, there’s nothing magical about 60 minutes. Can you get a good workout in 45 minutes? 30? (Right now, I’m experimenting now with a 20-minute Kettlebell workout that I’m finding very efficient and exhausting.)
Experiment and see what you can efficiently achieve when you aren’t just trying to fill the hour (but rather getting in a good workout that furthers your fitness goals.)
3. Eliminate time for distractions
One way we “expand the work” of a project is by giving into unnecessary distractions. These distractions can be co-workers wandering into our office to talk about what we’re working on. It can email popping up that we decide should be handled immediately (even though they don’t need to be.) It could be our own thoughts running off in a new tangent.
Since we feel like we have plenty of time, we easily give in to the distractions as they show up.
Eliminating them can be as easy as setting a timer and focusing exclusively on the task at hand. Give yourself a short deadline (10 minutes or less) to move your project forward with complete focus. 10 minutes allows no wiggle room for distractions.
While you probably won’t finish your complete task during those 10 minutes, you will efficiently move it forward. To move it forward even more, set the timer a couple of more times. Using focused, short bursts of time, you will be able to complete your task and break Parkinson’s Law.
To break the Law, you have to be proactive.
Parkinson’s Law is always going to show up. It’s up to you to be proactive to break it.
- Use the stopwatch on your phone and learn how long your tasks take.
- Experiment with discovering the minimum amount of time needed to do tasks and schedule only for that time.
- Eliminate distractions by working in short bursts of time.
Any of these tools will help you successfully break the Law when it threatens your productivity and efficiency.
