Parkinson’s Law: Why it’s Sabotaging Productivity and How to Combat It

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Have you ever found that something that should be relatively simple ends up taking an inordinately long time? This can be even more confounding if you have undertaken similar tasks before and completed them in much less time.

So, what gives? It may be Parkinson’s Law in action.

Parkinson’s Law states that work will expand to fill the time available to complete it.

This means deadlines that can lead people to procrastination and motivate people to spend time on trivial matters or tasks, rather than attending to the task at hand. Read our piece on habits that can become sneaky ways we procrastinate for more on this subject.

A prime example of this is the fact that building the Sidney Opera House was supposed to take just 4 years, but, in the end, 14 years passed before construction was completed.

Luckily, there are things you can do to combat Parkinson’s Law, some of which we’ll investigate later in this piece. First, though, it seems appropriate to ask why this happens at all, and why it can be so devastating to productivity. To do that, we must find out more about Parkinson’s Law.

Let’s get into it.

What is Parkinson’s Law?

Parkinson’s Law posits the idea that work grows to fill the window of time assigned to complete it. The term was first coined by Cyril Northcote Parkinson in 1955, in a humorous essay written for the Economist.

In that essay, Parkinson tells the story of a woman given a single task – to write and send a postcard. This simple task would take a busy person about 3-5 minutes to do. The woman in the story takes an entire day to finish the task. She spends an hour choosing a postcard, an hour and a half finding her misplaced glass and writing the card, then a further 20 minutes deciding whether to take an umbrella on the walk to post it. The saga continues until there’s no time in the day to accomplish anything else.

Now let’s look at how Parkinson’s Law could manifest itself in a modern workplace-based example.

You and your team are tasked with completing a bug fix. It’s not a complicated fix and you should be able to complete it in a few hours.

You get a fortnight to do it. Since you have such an abundance of time available, you start investigating the bug and decide to check out a couple of related issues. You and your team then start asking what might be causing these problems. While it’s true that this could prove useful later, it doesn’t get you any closer to sorting out the bug fix you were asked to deal with.

The scope of the project or task continues to enlarge as you and your team start exploring more and more related problems, it soon evolves into a project which will take around two weeks to finish. Parkinson’s Law has done its thing.

Why Does This Happen?

We can see from the example above that when we are given more than ample time to complete something, we tend to make tasks assigned to us more complex. Procrastination also plays a vital role in Parkinson’s Law.

We know we have plenty of time to do something, so we put it to one side and do other things until time pressure becomes such that we are forced to attend to the original task, lest we risk missing an important deadline or being unable to deliver work to the expected standard.

Why do we wait until the last minute?

One guess is that deadlines that are in the immediate future motivate us and spur us on. As deadlines loom, the adrenaline kicks in, we experience a heightened level of arousal, and can better concentrate on the work before us. We often work to a higher standard, too.

Before we look at how best to combat Parkinson’s Law, let’s find out about Parkinson’s Law of Triviality.

The Law of Triviality

Parkinson’s Law doesn’t only apply to individuals. According to Parkinson’s Law of Triviality, people in groups often give undue weight and attention to things that don’t really matter. This is often counterproductive.

There is also a phenomenon known as social loafing. We tend to put less effort into something when we’re working on it in groups than we would if working on it alone.  This is because you know several other people are also responsible for completing a set task and the social responsibility is shared, so your sense of individual agency lessens.

Don’t be fooled into thinking Parkinson’s Law can only affect your personal productivity. It can sabotage team productivity, and make its impact felt within organisations too.

Now let’s find out how to combat and overcome it.

How to Combat Parkinson’s Law

How do you avoid putting things off, or overcomplicating tasks so much that there’s always a last-minute panic trying to complete work on time?

First, it’s important to know it’s difficult to tackle Parkinson’s Law during a project or task. You must head it off before it can affect your productivity.

The best way to do this is through planning and by setting clear expectations regarding the approach you and your team will take to tackle larger or more complex projects. By doing this, you will help minimise the risk that you and your team will fall prey to procrastination.  

In the initial team meeting, before you embark on a new project, you should:

• Clearly convey your vision to attendees and share your aims and aspirations for the project.
• Discuss the value of the project.
• Explain why it makes sense for you, your team, and the company to take on the project.
• Ensure that all your team members and co-workers understand the impact of the work and are motivated to continue.
• Clarify and assign each person a role or set of responsibilities.
• Outline and detail the scope of the project and decide what falls inside and outside of that scope.
• Identify trade-offs you’d be willing to make if something unexpected cropped up and put a spanner in the works, perhaps even causing you to fall behind schedule. Common trade-offs involve time allocated, budget, and scope of the project. You can figure out where you have the most room to manoeuvre in the event you need to make unforeseen adjustments. Typically, you won’t have room to adjust your most vital aspect, so would need to modify the others. For instance, if you’re recording a podcast, timing is vital, so you have room to make adjustments to only the budget and scope of the project.
• Create a timeline. Where possible, try to set deadlines in days rather than weeks or months as this can give you a sense of urgency which allows you to focus and be truly productive. Having multiple short deadlines for smaller tasks with a larger project helps make that larger project seem more manageable, so neither you nor your teammates become overwhelmed. This, in turn, helps you feel that there is a continuous sense of momentum, and that progress is always being made.

Follow these simple tips to nip Parkinson’s Law in the bud before it has a chance to sabotage your productivity.

Wrapping Up

Today, we’ve covered the phenomenon of Parkinson’s Law and the Law of Triviality, as well as discussed why it’s sabotaging our productivity. Hopefully, you can use the tips we’ve shared here to help you combat the effects of Parkinson’s Law and deal with it before it can wreak havoc on your individual and team productivity.

As planning is essential to overcoming Parkinson’s Law, get a head start now by reading our ‘Simple Guide to Planning Your Day’.