Why Parkinson’s Law Sucks

Surely you’ve heard of it, haven’t you?

Work expands to fill the time available for its completion

~Cyril Northcote Parkinson

Along the same lines…

I remember having to write an essay for one of my complimentary courses in first year.  That was painful. We had the topic and everything for about a month before the thing was actually due. Guess when the essay actually got written?

The night before…yep.

(Or actually, it wasn’t quite the night before..it would be the same day..it was between 10 PM the night before and 3 AM on the actual day)

Anyhow, I did pretty well on it - I got an A (and yet, if you were to ask me about Urban Development now..I wouldn’t have a clue)

So, does that mean procrastination works?

Not necessarily but it does prove Parkinson’s point to an extent. If you give yourself too much time - you over complicate the thing - stress out and either a. get it done and realize it wasn’t bad or b. burn out and panic.

Guess what most people do?

B, you guessed it right.

And guess what? You waste a TON of time panicking!

Here’s how to get out of it..

1. Know exactly what you need to do and the complexity of the task

- Regarded it’s quite hard to Guess the complexity of any task unless you’ve done it before - you can sure try.

2. Set Challenging goals

3. Get it done and go play

photo credit: Will Pill

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