{"id":21610,"date":"2020-12-28T20:55:46","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T00:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=21610"},"modified":"2021-01-03T19:17:11","modified_gmt":"2021-01-03T23:17:11","slug":"parkinson-principle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/parkinson-principle\/","title":{"rendered":"Parkinson Principle: Projects Take The Time You Allow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is the Parkinson Principle? How does it work, and how can you learn from it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Parkinson Principle states that any project will fill the amount of time you allot for it. With this in mind, it’s possible to spend less time on each project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about the Parkinson Principle and how it works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Parkinson<\/strong> Principle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Parkinson\u2019s Law states that the amount of time you have for a project will dictate how important and difficult you think it is. You\u2019ll use all the time allowed, even if the project doesn\u2019t actually require it.<\/strong> In other words, work expand to fill time. In addition, you might actually do a worse job on the project than if you had less time because the time pressure forces you to focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees fall prey to The Parkinson Principle law all the time. It\u2019s not necessarily their fault\u2014because they have to work 9-5, they find things to do to take up all this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entrepreneurs, however, don\u2019t have a set schedule, so if they\u2019re using more time than they need, or giving themselves extravagant deadlines, they have no excuse. They\u2019re either copying the status quo or caught up in a bad habit so work expands to fill time for them as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Best of Both<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To gain yourself the most time, you want to employ both the 80\/20<\/a> rule and Parkinson\u2019s Law. Only do important tasks, and give yourself short deadlines to achieve them.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Charney is a technology salesman with young children. To win himself more time to spend with his family, he followed the 80\/20 rule. Three times a day he asked himself if he was being productive or just busy. If he was only busy, he stopped doing whatever he was doing and moved on to a task that was actually important. To apply The Parkinson Principle, he took Mondays and Fridays off to cut down on the amount of time he had to get his work done. After five weeks, he was working 18 hours a week and being four times as productive as he had been working 40 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Applying the Laws<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Since we know work expands to fill time, there are several questions to ask yourself<\/a> when learning to apply the 80\/20 rule and The Parkinson Principle to your job and life. While answering, keep in mind that you want to negatively affect your income as little as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n