PARKINSON'S LAW: WHY WE ALWAYS TAKE EXACTLY AS MUCH TIME AS WE HAVE
You know the drill: You sit down to tackle a task, feel like you have endless time, and somehow, or maybe precisely because of that, you stretch it out like an old piece of chewing gum. And then there are those other moments when the deadline is breathing down your neck, and suddenly you’re hitting superhuman productivity levels. Welcome to the universe of Parkinson’s Law (see sidebar for details).
This "law" states: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
Translation: Give me three hours to write an email, and I’ll spend three hours perfecting the salutation. Give me ten minutes, and suddenly I’m an email-writing genius.
If this is true, what does it mean for us? And how can we harness this effect for our own benefit?
WE OFTEN WASTE OUR PRECIOUS TIME
This law doesn’t just explain why we get our best ideas at the last minute. It also highlights how often we waste time.
Meetings: Why do meetings so often last an hour? Because they’re scheduled that way. If they were limited to 30 minutes, everyone would suddenly become much more efficient. Instead, endless discussions over… nothing. Just because there’s extra time planned. Valuable time that could be used for “real work,” meaningful deep work.
Assignments: Whether you have 90 days to complete your thesis or 30 days, you’ll inevitably finish it in the last few days. True, right?
The point is: We treat time like a stretchy substance we can pull endlessly. But what happens when we snap the gum back into place?
PROCRASTINATION: YOUR HIDDEN SUPERHERO
Maybe procrastination, the art of delaying tasks, isn’t as bad as its reputation. If we’re going to start working only at the last minute anyway, why not intentionally plan for less time upfront?
Example: You have to write a report. Normally, you’d block out a week. But what happens if you give yourself just two hours? Suddenly, you think faster, make pragmatic decisions, stay laser-focused, and crank it out without distraction, finishing before you have time to get lost in endless details.
HOW TO USE PARKINSON’S LAW TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
Set shorter deadlines: Tell yourself, “I’ll finish this by 3:00 PM today.” Not “sometime this week.” Apply a little pressure, and save yourself precious time. (But don’t overdo it, we’re not aiming for burnout.)
Timeboxing: Divide your day into fixed time blocks. 30 minutes for emails, 1 hour for a presentation, 15 minutes for social media… and stick to it.
The 2-Minute Rule: If something takes less than two minutes, do it immediately. Why? Because otherwise, you’ll spend three hours debating whether to do it now.
Try “Shrinking Deadlines”: Estimate how long a task will take, then cut that time in half. Spoiler: You’ll still get it done. And you’ll do it better, faster, and more efficiently.
THE SURPRISING SCIENCE BEHIND IT
But why does this work? Our brains are wired to conserve energy. When we have lots of time, they plan everything leisurely and indulgently. But when time is short, our minds shift into emergency mode: focus, efficiency, boom boom boom. Scientists call this hyperfocus or the flow state. It’s why we often do our best work under pressure.
SHRINK. YOUR. TIME.
Next time you notice a task dragging on endlessly, ask yourself: Do I really have this much time? Or am I just stretching out the chewing gum?
Set shorter deadlines, use procrastination as your turbo boost, and don’t be afraid to shrink meetings down to 20 minutes. Your day still has 24 hours. But what you do with them? That’s your choice.
SIDEBAR: THE STORY BEHIND PARKINSON’S LAW
Parkinson’s Law is named after Cyril Northcote Parkinson (1909–1993), a British historian and writer. He wasn’t just a respected expert in naval history but also a sharp observer of bureaucracy and management.
In 1955, Parkinson published a satirical essay in The Economist, where he first introduced his now-famous law. Originally, he aimed to humorously highlight the inefficiency and self-serving nature of bureaucracies: The more time and resources available, the more they’ll be consumed, regardless of necessity. His observation was so precise and universal that it resonated far beyond bureaucratic systems.
In his writings, Parkinson used biting humor to show how people often structure work to fill all available time, a phenomenon we still see in almost every aspect of life today.
And maybe it raises even more questions, such as: Is 9-to-5 really efficient? And: Just because someone takes a long time to complete something, or spends long hours in the office (#remoteWork #presenteeism), does that really say anything about the efficiency or quality of their work?
