Parkinson’s Law: Why Do We Waste So Much Time?

Cyril Northcote Parkinson was a historian who worked for the British government for many years. He published the experiences he gained over the years in a book entitled ‘ The Parkinson’s Law and Other Studies in Administration’ in 1957 . In this work he formulated the well-known law which in reality is not a single law, but is made up of several laws.

Parkinson carefully observed the way work was performed in government offices. Based on his own daily experiences, he was able to discover patterns that enabled him to formulate his basic principles. Parkinson’s law can be summarized in three basic hypotheses:

• “Work expands until it fills the time available for its realization.”
• “Expenditures will increase until they cover all income.”

• “The time spent on each item on the agenda is inversely proportional to its importance.”

Since its creation, experts on the subject have verified the validity of Parkinson’s law time and time again. It has also served as a guide to propose new ways of working and time management for better efficiency.

Parkinson’s Law and Time Management

The primary application of Parkinson’s law was the administration of time. His first hypothesis is as follows: ” Work expands until it fills the time available for its realization.” This means that if you have an hour to complete a task, it will also take you an hour to complete the task. But if you have a month, it will take you a month to complete the task.

The truth is that every day we witness the validity of this law. For example, when students have two or three months to submit a project and they do it twenty-four hours before the deadline. Or when you have to finish a task in the afternoon. You postpone it until a few hours before the agreed time. And in these few hours, you’re doing everything you didn’t do before.

This principle is related to another hypothesis that Parkinson called ‘ The law of extension’  . He hypothesizes that when you have time, you will always have a tendency to put off everything you need to do. But,  why is this happening? Simply because time is an extremely subjective concept. It depends more on our inner perception than on the actual passage of time.

Parkinson also noticed that the more time we spend completing a task, the more complicated it becomes and the harder it becomes to complete. If you have the perception that you have enough time at your disposal, you focus more on the details and you tend to elaborate. You try to accomplish even the smallest, minimal aspects of the task. Whereas, when you’re in a hurry, you ‘ hit the nail on the head’,  without elaborating unnecessarily.

A bureaucratic devil that we all copy

Parkinson also saw that the least important problems were those that ultimately took the most time. Hence the third hypothesis, ‘ The time spent on each item on the agenda is inversely proportional to its importance’.

It seems that relevant problems require serious attitudes and precise approaches. That is why they need to be tackled more efficiently. The opposite happens in trivial matters, where everyone wants to join in the conversation and say whatever comes to their mind. As a result, more time is spent on these matters.

Even though Parkinson’s Law was created after observing bureaucracy, the truth is that it can be applied to practically anyone. And it doesn’t just apply to time management. It also extends to other aspects of life, such as spending or the organization of physical spaces.

Parkinson hypothesized that ‘ Expenses will increase until they cover all income’. This means that no matter how much you earn, you will always find a way to struggle to make ends meet or even go into debt. A person can live on a fixed income without any problems. If his income rises, this does not translate to him as having a surplus. Instead, he will rearrange his finances so that once again nothing is left.

The result of all these behavioral patterns is a high degree of inefficiency. There is never enough time nor money. But if we look at it closely, it’s because of the way we deal with it. This article you’re reading is actually written according to Parkinson’s recommendations:  divide the work into sub-tasks and set a time limit to complete them. The result: completing the task twice as fast. What do you think? Wanna try?