PARKINSON'S LAW HOW TO DO MORE THINGS IN LESS TIME? - ARTE - 2025

The Parkinson 's Law says: "Work expands until the time available for its completion is finished." It is one of the best known and most applied laws in time management.

If you've spent time reading about productivity, you've probably read about this law before. You will know the name or concept, although you may not know exactly how to implement it to be as effective as you can. This article will teach you how to do it.

This observation was made in 1955 by Cyril Northcote Parkinson, a famous British historian and writer, first appearing in an article for The Economist and later becoming the focus of "Parkinson's Law: The Pursuit of Progress."

Basically, Parkinson's law says that if you give yourself a week to complete a two-hour task, then the task will increase in complexity and less motivating to fill that week. It is even possible that the overtime is not spent with work, but with stress and tension.

Therefore, it is important to allocate the correct amount of time to a task, to save more time and reduce complexity.

Examples of Parkinson's law in real life

Whether you are aware or not, you have probably experienced the Parkinson's principle many times in real life:

• At the university you had the whole semester to write a paper even though you finished in the last 4 days, sending it minutes before the deadline was closed.
• You have had a whole week to communicate something important even though you did it at the last possible moment.
• You have had the whole year to take care of yourself before a wedding or vacation, but you start the diet and exercise a month before the trip.
• As the author of the theory himself said: an old woman can spend all day writing and sending a postcard to her niece.

If you have experienced any of these situations, you will know what I am talking about. For months, you are "paralyzed" without being able to work, and suddenly you start working quickly to finish a task just ahead of time.

Parkinson's law and time management

The British historian Cyril Parkinson observed this trend during his time in the British Civil Service. He realized that as the bureaucracy expanded, it became more inefficient and he observed it in a variety of other circumstances; as something increased, its efficiency decreased.

He found that even simple tasks increased in complexity if the time to complete them increased. On the contrary, as the defined time to finish them decreased, the task was easier to finish.

This concept is related to the belief that it is better to work longer than efficiently. That mindset is reflected in companies where employees are rewarded for working longer rather than for what is produced or the goals achieved.

How to use Parkinson's Law to your advantage

Few people will tell you to work less. Therefore, if you are going to implement Parkinson's law, you will have to do it yourself by applying artificial limitations to do the tasks / jobs / activities efficiently.

• Work without your laptop charger. Try to get your tasks done (read email, write a report…) before your battery runs out.
• Divide tasks into subtasks and set a time limit to finish them.
• It's okay to set your goals to write an article a day, run X hours, or go to the gym, although it's best to try to do them before, for example, 12:00 am.
• Extreme case: stop working after 2:00 p.m. If you get up earlier, you will have enough time to finish everything you have to do and have the afternoon free.
• Blackmail yourself: Get a colleague to make you pay if you work beyond a time limit or don't achieve a certain goal. If you use this approach, you will be motivated by the financial consequences.
• Set a hard time limit. You can lose considerable weight in 12 months although you can also do it in 6 months if you see it as your limit.
• Limit unproductive tasks to 30 minutes each day: checking social media or email.

Don't take work home

Working longer hours is not the way to show more dedication or be more productive.

It is likely that

• Work more and do less.
• Be addicted, not to work, but to thinking that you are working.

If you set a time limit for work, you will be more productive and have a better leisure and social life. Creating artificial restrictions to work will in turn create more freedom and greater productivity.

Refuse to bring work home, don't work on the couch or bed. When you leave the office / workplace, just stop working.

Create restrictions to create freedom

The main lesson of Parkinson's Law is that restrictions can create freedom. It's counterintuitive yet real thinking that can be applied to even the simplest tasks.

By restrictions I also mean specify. The more specific and restrictive something is, the simpler it will be.

• Think of 10 things in your daily life. Now think of 10 things on your work table. Which is easier?
• Name 10 fun things. Now name 10 fun team sports. Which is easier?

Specification and restrictions create freedom and encourage creativity; They will be a fundamental tool to increase your productivity and be an efficient creator.

Using Parkinson's law to achieve difficult goals

Although it is not specified in the official Parkinson's theory, you can use the reverse rule to increase the quality of your work.

If you set goals that are more difficult to achieve, you will create a gap between what you are capable of and what you want to do.

It's about choosing a big goal, committing to it, and finding a way to achieve it.

The fundamentals of Parkinson's Law