The ‘law’ that explains why you can’t get anything done

Ever wondered why your to-do list seems endless, no matter how hard you work? Uncover the intriguing law that might be the culprit behind your productivity woes and learn how to turn the tide in your favor.

Parkinson’s Law

“It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

• British naval historian and author Cyril Northcote Parkinson wrote this in 1955
• Parkinson’s original intent was to criticize the bureaucratization of the British Civil Service
• The number of navy ships decreased by two thirds, and personnel by a third, between 1914 and 1928, but the number of bureaucrats ballooned by 6% a year
• This was due to factors independent of naval operational needs
• Get more subordinates, create more work

The Planning Fallacy

A cognitive quirk called the planning fallacy leads us to consistently underestimate how long it will take us to complete a project

• The result is that our original deadlines are flawed from the get-go
• It is astonishingly common. In schools and universities, it can be seen among both staff and students
• In IT, surveys suggest that fewer than one third of projects meet their initial deadline
• Projects take about 3.5 times as long as expected in industrial research and design, and up to 90% of writers are late delivering their manuscripts

In IT, surveys suggest that fewer than one third of projects meet their initial deadline

One theory is that the planning fallacy arises from our broader tendency to focus on fine details of a scenario, rather than the big picture

• This tendency may be exacerbated by “motivated reasoning” – we often look only for the evidence that suits our goals, and it is often within our interests to feel that a project can be completed quickly and with less effort, leading us to ignore or dismiss clues that it might take longer

When you have a deadline it’s like a storm ahead of you or having a truck around the corner. It’s menacing and it’s approaching, so you focus heavily on the task

Eldar Shafir Parkinson

• The bigger the size of a government or organization, the more bureaucracy – and, in turn, the less effective it is
• Without strict time constraints, we waste time and our work takes longer to complete
• Smaller groups form and they block each other, which explains why it is exceedingly hard to come up with unanimous decisions when cabinets are large

The planning fallacy can explain why even our best attempts at time management can sometimes backfire

We often look only for the evidence that suits our goals, leading us to ignore or dismiss clues that it might take longer

• Setting implementation intentions can reduce procrastination and increase the chance that people will follow through with their plans
• If you want to make more realistic plans, you should also pay greater attention to previous experiences and resist the temptation to dismiss their relevance for the problem at hand

People like to say if it wasn’t for the last minute, nothing would get done. But research shows people’s productivity is not linear

To optimize productivity, you need to maximize benefits and minimize costs

• Find that inflection point, which is where you should start to wrap up
• Cut yourself off rather than keep tinkering

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