88: Little Jolt of Joy – Procrastination and Parkinson’s Law

Parkinson’s Law and Giving Yourself Less Time

A little jolt of joy today about a phenomenon called Parkinson’s Law, which somehow never caught on with the same popularity as Murphy’s Law. Murphy’s Law says anything that can go wrong probably will, something most of us relate to instantly. Parkinson’s Law, from a 1955 essay by a British civil servant writing about bureaucracy, states it plainly in its opening line: work expands so as to fill the available time for its completion.

The extra half hour that never actually helps

Think about the last time you woke up early, telling yourself you’d get ready quickly and squeeze in a few extra things before the house stirred. More often than not, you did the exact same tasks you always do, except they somehow took ninety minutes instead of sixty. The work simply expanded to fill the extra time you gave it. That’s Parkinson’s Law in action, whether the project gets three weeks or gets crammed into a single panicked hour, the work tends to get done either way.

Questioning the value of elaborate planning

If we already accept something like Murphy’s Law without evidence, maybe it’s worth giving Parkinson’s Law the same benefit of the doubt. Why hand over four hours to something that, under time pressure, would still get done in one? There’s plenty of advice out there insisting that ten minutes of planning saves an hour of doing, and sure, a full plan with time blocks mapped out can reduce stress for some people. But by the time you’ve meal planned, made lists, checked the pantry, and coordinated the whole week, you could have just run to the store, grabbed what you needed for tonight, and put dinner on the table. Either way, time passed and everyone ate.

A permission slip for cramming

The next time someone raises an eyebrow at how long you waited to start something, Parkinson’s Law offers a decent answer: if I’d given it four hours, it would have taken four hours. I gave it one, so it took one. Cramming isn’t inherently a failure, it’s just the natural result of time expanding or contracting to match what you allow it.

A quick, honest check-in

This lines up nicely with a monthly check-in on loose, one-time 22-for-22 goals for the year. By this point in the year, you’d theoretically expect about half of them to be checked off if you were pacing evenly. If you’re behind that pace, that’s simply Parkinson’s Law getting ready to do its thing near the end of the year, and that’s perfectly fine. If falling behind genuinely stresses you out and you’d rather stay ahead of that curve, that’s worth honoring too, there’s no single right way to pace yourself. But if a goal isn’t where you expected it to be, there’s no need to pile on guilt about it either.

Until next time, continue to choose joy.