The Power of Parkinson's Law

Have you ever taken weeks to do something but then when pressed to do it you get it done in an hour?

There's this concept about time called Parkinson's Law that states that tasks adjust to fill to time allotted.

This is why you'll take all semester to write a paper (because you have the time), but then if you realize the night before that a paper is due, you'll get it done in one night.

I see it happen all the time with myself. Without a deadline, I hem and haw and dilly and dally and take all the time I can to get something done.

Take cleaning the house as an example. I'll put it off, feel like it's a huge task, that it's going to take me all weekend or at least all day on Sunday. Then if I have friends coming over, I'll spend an hour tidying and realize, "Wow, I really got a lot done in an hour."

Some of it is accountability. Knowing that other people will see and benefit from the work I'm doing, which motivates me to do that more. I wrote more about the power of accountability yesterday.

But some of it is how our mind works. I guess, honestly, I don't really know.

All I know is that I used to believe I could only publish a blog once a month, or if I was hustling, maybe once a week for a little while. But now I publish something everyday.

Some of that is the power of lowering the bar, which I've talked about many times. How it's not about making something "good" but just about making something. There's a power in showing up and being consistent.

Some of it is about getting clear on what I'm doing and just doing one thing at a time.

Either way, I'm just trying to make the point that whatever it is that you feel like you don't have time for, you probably do.

Just give yourself a deadline. Ask a friend to help you be accountable. Create a real deadline for yourself (like schedule a dinner party in a few weeks so you actually paint your kitchen). Set a timer and give yourself one task and see how much you can get done in even as little as 10 minutes.

What is the thing you've been putting off? What real or fake deadlines can you set in place to make it happen?