A practical application of Parkinson 's Law to better manage your time by being able to do double things in half the time.
Every human doctrine has its basic principles: there are the laws of thermodynamics, Kepler 's laws … Murphy's laws ! ;-)
The world of effectiveness and productivity also has its own commandments.
In this article, I want to tell you about one of these commandments, and how you can use it to do double things in half the time .
Parkinson's law
“The work expands to occupy all the available time; the more time the work seems important and demanding. "
Cyril N. Parkinson
A sort of "de noartri" Parkinson 's law says more simply:
"The more time you have, the more you will waste."
These principles probably don't sound completely new to you.
These principles probably don't sound completely new to you.
That time at university, when you discovered you had an extra week to prepare for the exam, you still studied until midnight even on the last day (by the way, without this effective study method ). And do you remember that bill? you knew about the deadline for 2 months, yet you risked paying the penalty. Not to mention that project at work, the deadline has been extended, but you are more messed up than before!
But if it is true that the more time we have, the more we waste, the opposite is also true : when time is scarce, we tend to work by priority and more effectively .
- time = + motivation
A tight deadline forces us to focus on the goals we need to achieve: the risk of not being able to complete the job, and the possible negative consequences, motivates us .
Thinking of the binomial "the stick and the carrot", the scarcity of time is certainly a "stick", and therefore a little appreciable type of motivation, but the point is that ... it works . If you are a hardened procrastinator, you know full well that an impending deadline is sometimes the only incentive to take action.
So let's see how we can use Parkinson's law to learn how to do more in less time .
Practical applications
While I was thinking about what could be the most effective practical example to show you what results can be obtained by turning Parkinson's law to your advantage, I realized that I was applying it without realizing it.
The countdown on my iPhone is 5 ′ 22 "(21"… 20 "… 19"). When I activated it before I started writing this article it was set to 30 '00 ”.
When you need to complete a task, try using this practical application of Parkinson's law :
imagine how long it might take you to complete a task
divide the imagined time by 2
set a clearly visible timer with the new deadline
STREET!!!
Having a challenging deadline to complete a task gives you the impulse to act immediately and allows you to focus on your goal without getting lost in distractions.
A tip: be careful not to overdo it ! impossible deadlines risk being counterproductive. If you decide to write the Divine Comedy in 3 minutes , the only result you will have obtained is that of not being able to meet your deadline; more unmotivated than before, you will set another impossible deadline, falling into a vicious circle that will only lead you to waste time and motivation.
IPhone countdown: 0 ′ 48 ”.
For once I preach well and scratch… well!
Every human doctrine has its basic principles: there are the laws of thermodynamics, Kepler 's laws … Murphy's laws ! ;-)
The world of effectiveness and productivity also has its own commandments.
In this article, I want to tell you about one of these commandments, and how you can use it to do double things in half the time .
Parkinson's law
“The work expands to occupy all the available time; the more time the work seems important and demanding. "
Cyril N. Parkinson
A sort of "de noartri" Parkinson 's law says more simply:
"The more time you have, the more you will waste."
These principles probably don't sound completely new to you.
These principles probably don't sound completely new to you.
That time at university, when you discovered you had an extra week to prepare for the exam, you still studied until midnight even on the last day (by the way, without this effective study method ). And do you remember that bill? you knew about the deadline for 2 months, yet you risked paying the penalty. Not to mention that project at work, the deadline has been extended, but you are more messed up than before!
But if it is true that the more time we have, the more we waste, the opposite is also true : when time is scarce, we tend to work by priority and more effectively .
- time = + motivation
A tight deadline forces us to focus on the goals we need to achieve: the risk of not being able to complete the job, and the possible negative consequences, motivates us .
Thinking of the binomial "the stick and the carrot", the scarcity of time is certainly a "stick", and therefore a little appreciable type of motivation, but the point is that ... it works . If you are a hardened procrastinator, you know full well that an impending deadline is sometimes the only incentive to take action.
So let's see how we can use Parkinson's law to learn how to do more in less time .
Practical applications
While I was thinking about what could be the most effective practical example to show you what results can be obtained by turning Parkinson's law to your advantage, I realized that I was applying it without realizing it.
The countdown on my iPhone is 5 ′ 22 "(21"… 20 "… 19"). When I activated it before I started writing this article it was set to 30 '00 ”.
When you need to complete a task, try using this practical application of Parkinson's law :
imagine how long it might take you to complete a task
divide the imagined time by 2
set a clearly visible timer with the new deadline
STREET!!!
Having a challenging deadline to complete a task gives you the impulse to act immediately and allows you to focus on your goal without getting lost in distractions.
A tip: be careful not to overdo it ! impossible deadlines risk being counterproductive. If you decide to write the Divine Comedy in 3 minutes , the only result you will have obtained is that of not being able to meet your deadline; more unmotivated than before, you will set another impossible deadline, falling into a vicious circle that will only lead you to waste time and motivation.
IPhone countdown: 0 ′ 48 ”.
For once I preach well and scratch… well!
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