Parkinson’s Law
Learned from the The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated
Parkinson’s Law dictates that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion.
It is the magic of the imminent deadline. If I give you 24 hours to complete a project, the time pressure forces you to focus on execution, and you have no choice but to do only the bare essentials. If I give you a week to complete the same task, it’s six days of making a mountain out of a molehill. If I give you two months, God forbid, it becomes a mental monster. The end product of the shorter deadline is almost inevitably of equal or higher quality due to greater focus.
Ferriss, Timothy. The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated (p. 96). Harmony/Rodale. Kindle Edition.
To maximize Productivity:
- Limit tasks to the important to shorten work time (80-20 Rule)
- Shorten work time to limit tasks to the important (Parkinson’s Law)