Blogtober 2021
Parkinson’s Law: How to Stop this Productivity Barrier from Restricting You

Parkinson’s Law: How to Stop this Productivity Barrier from Restricting You

Parkinson’s Law is defined as the process by which work will expand to fill the time allotted for its completion. It was first described by Cyril Northcote Parkinson in an article in the Economist in 1955. It is a business principle that can be applied to other areas of your life as well. Parkinson’s Law really harms your progress and ability to get things done in various areas. 

In a practical sense, Parkinson’s Law addresses deadlines exclusively. Remember when you were in school and you had a report that needed to be completed by the end of the semester. You probably did some prep work in the beginning of the semester; looked up a few things. But you didn’t get really serious about it until the semester was nearing its end. Then you got busy. Compare that to the time when you had 2 weeks to complete a project. You were just told about the project 2 weeks before it was due. You immediately got to it.

In both situations, you did the same amount of work, even thought the semester project allowed you more time for completion. It can be argued that you actually put more effort into the semester long project even with the same amount of work, because the time you weren’t using to work on and address the project, you were actually worrying about what you weren’t doing or you were creating obstacles as to why you couldn’t work on the project at that moment. The work in the semester long project was just spread out through the semester instead of condensed like the 2 week project.

History and background of Parkinson’s Law

Parkinson’s Law deals directly with productivity in professions. I believe that it can relate to the home setting as well. In the home setting, a mother has to deal with various personalities, levels of motivation, numerous tasks and projects, routines, others expectations. Yes, the individuals in the home may be related to you, but the interaction you have with family members can resemble a business CEO with all the responsibilities, decision making, and interactions that occur on a daily basis.

One way that can release Parkinson’s Law’s hold on your productivity is to set reasonable time expectations to complete tasks. You don’t want to have too long of a timeline to complete something, but you also do not want to make it too short. Both of these can create frustrations. You have to learn your time schedule as well as how you work best. 

Why Parkinson’s Law is detrimental to your productivity

Procrastination

Procrastination can pair with Parkinson’s Law making it doubly paralyzing. If you already have a tendency to put things off to the last minute, having a larger amount of time to complete a task does not make you more effective. It just allows you to have more time to push the important task to a later date.

There is a post on Find Your Flourish! where procrastination is discussed. Find it here. Ways to address procrastination is discussed.

Procrastination types

  1. Pressure procrastinator- You feel like you have to have your back up against the wall in order to perform optimally. 
  2. Stretched too thin procrastinator- You feel like you have been doing so much already, trying to begin something else would be too much.
  3. Perfectionist procrastinator- You have to do everything exactly right and can’t start because you may not have everything in the proper place.
  4. Visionary procrastinator- You always have a new idea but seeing this vision through to the end is a challenge.

If you identify as a procrastinator, can you identify what type of procrastinator you are from this list?

Law of Triviality (Bike shedding)

The Law of Triviality develops Parkinson’s Law further. It was also proposed by C.N. Parkinson. Bike shedding is when someone takes into account all the small components of a decision (like constructing a bike shed- what color should it be) and overlooks the major components of the task (like the cost and where it should be placed). Bike shedding wastes valuable hours on something that is minimal when there are larger, more important decisions that should be addressed. It is when we get lost in the weeds. This is very easy to do when you are at home, because there are so many things that attempt to gain your attention. You have to figure out what is important and address that. 

Task expansion

Another easy thing to do as a mom is to allow small tasks to take over your schedule. It is easy to get caught up in laundry or completing your child’s closet organization so you can get a task done and mark it complete. But routine tasks have a way of expanding. What should take 1 hour turns into 3 hours because you get swept away in the minor details and don’t move forward. Now, sometimes task expansion is good because you complete necessary details of what needs to be done. Sometimes you have not allowed yourself an adequate amount of time to complete something, so the task expands. You have to find a balance to prevent excessive task expansion as it can result in time being lost and important details to be overlooked.

Remedies for Parkinson’s Law

Identify and address your deficits in the area of time management

Identifying where you have issues to work on to improve yourself is one thing that successful individuals do well. Are you good at identifying where you need to make improvements? If you can do this in the area of time management, you will be able to gain more time to perform activities you enjoy more.

Set reasonable time expectations for task completion

This comes with maturity. You have to learn what goes into tasks and the time YOU usually need to complete them. Once you have that, you can move forward and perform time estimation for various tasks. This will allow you to become better at optimizing your time.

Focus on completing tasks in ways that optimize your strengths

You have to decide if you work better in the morning or later in the day. That is when you should schedule your more difficult tasks. Usually getting the most difficult task out of the way early works the best, because you don’t waste energy thinking about ‘that thing you have to do.’ Starting early (however you define that) also allows you to make adjustments as needed if something else comes up.

Plan for the routine tasks in order to complete them in less time

Schedule a certain time for those tasks that you have to accomplish on a regular basis each day.

Give yourself less time to complete small tasks like looking at social media, checking emails, meal planning

Use time blocking to segment tasks times with a specific start and end, so you can move onto more important tasks for your day.

Use a priority list

This is a key to my daily success. I use a priority list each day. Find out more about that here.

Seek support as needed

If you need help, please ask for it. Having someone assist you can help you accomplish more in less time, as long as it is the right person. Find that team of people who root for you and support you. That friend who is available to be a listening ear when you need one. And also participate in activities when needed.

Resources

Discover ways to use Parkinson’s Law to help you: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/how-to-use-parkinsons-law-to-your-advantage.html

Information on how to conquer those difficult tasks- Eat the Frog https://todoist.com/productivity-methods/eat-the-frog#what-is-eat-the-frog


I am passionate about optimal work life balance and I can help women excel in both areas without compromising in either area because I have found systems of planning, organization, and personal development that help achieve goals. I created this blog to discuss topics on our journey of motherhood that we experience daily. Come on this journey with me and Find Your Flourish! Thank you for reading!

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