Complete these sentences…
You reap what you…
What goes up, must come…
To every action, there is an equal and opposite…
The world operates on rhythms, laws of science, and physics. Gravity, motion, energy, seasons, and space. Look around wherever you are right now and you will find a law of nature.
But very few people have heard of Parkinson’s law which outlines the human relationship with time and work. Parkinson’s Law says that work expands into the time given for its completion. This law plays out in meetings, activities, and nearly all projects that are corralled by time.
Cyril Northcote Parkinson was an author and British naval historian who introduced his “law” in 1955 through a humorous satirical article published in the Economist. Parkinson often poked fun at bureaucratic organizations that operated inefficiently through over-hiring and overspending. Parkinson saw inefficiencies in how we spend our time working….this critique is still relevant today.
There is hope though! The pandemic accelerated a refreshing change to the 40-hour work week as there is now a declaration of the death of the 9-5 by many of the major brands. Technology has infused the growth of knowledge workers and overhauled how organizations operate. Though we can communicate at the speed of lightning, and work from anywhere and anytime, we still fall victim to wasting time all for the “pursuit of progress”…ironically enough, this is the subtitle of the “Parkinson Law” book!
Parkinson observed this natural force play out in the workforce. When given a specific time to do something, we will use ALL of that time to complete our work. This goes for procrastinators especially!
If we are going to obey Parkinson’s Law to find more time, we must question if we are allotting too much time for work. We must question if we are doing too much. We must question our communication systems. Lastly, we have to question if we have a problem saying NO.
It’s All Over
Let’s start here…we are not good at saying NO. Humans inherently overdo it! Let’s explore all the overs…
Overindulgent: Most of us have eyes that are bigger than our stomachs. We overindulge not only in eating, but we overload our work plates.
Overtime: We are not good with time, so we are often stuck working after hours, nights, and weekends while compromising our values. Though technology has changed our work, humans have not changed.
Overcommit: We continue to struggle with work-life balance by packing our calendars on back-to-backs from 9-5.
Overcomplicate: We not only take on too many meetings, but we play racquetball with emails, social, and IMs all day while also expecting to pump out quality work.
Overachieve: Most of us are programmed to climb the ladder at all costs, seeking more at every level of life. Sometimes we have to take a step back and truly assess our ambitions and where our true fulfillment comes from. In our overachieving state, we tend to say yes to everything and pay for it later.
The consistent overwhelms above have one result…BURNOUT.
But that’s not it, when you stir all these “overs” together into an organization, we have just produced an overhead issue!
Cal Newport, author of A World Without Email, has often stated that the overhead is not about the number of employees, it’s about the communication challenges of collaboration that ignore the overwhelming amount of work that has to get done. When 40 hours are spent collaborating, task managing, or responding to correspondences, it leaves very little time inside the allotted hours to get the purposeful work done.
So as much as this sounds like our workflows are a dumpster fire, I don’t believe that it’s truly “all over”. We need an overhaul! We must rethink our modern-day systems. As the pandemic has taught us, there is much more to life to manage than just our day job. So to get to reap the benefits of all things life, let’s get better at working smarter.
It’s Not Over
Overhauling anything has 3 phases. Remove, Reimagine, and Replace!
The overhaul to our high-octane workflows can be solved in a multitude of ways…but I’m going to introduce my own framework below that supports a more humane way of living (and working)…a transformational model that not only saves us time, but can save our relationships, health, and happiness.
Step 1: Remove
We must demolish and remove all frameworks, existing systems, and pre-programmed thoughts about our time. This is a change in mindset…remove the old thinking! Most people don’t think we can make more time…in theory, this is correct. We are all given the same 24 hours a day. However, the goal in this 3-step framework is to make more time to do what you want to do. This is not a productivity hack, it’s called a life of freedom! To understand where we can save time starts with a simple time audit. Time audits can be used personally, for teams, or even for projects.
Step 2: Reimagine
The second step is to reimagine what our lives would look like if we could design them outside of the frameworks of society. Is Work-Life Balance a real thing that can be achieved? Yes, this can be done as an entrepreneur and an employee too! To reimagine, ask yourself these futuristic questions and then answer them one by one.
- What does my family life look like?
- What does my time on the job look like?
- What activities am I doing more of and also doing less of?
- What steals my energy so much, that it needs to be trashed altogether?
- What are my hurdles to making changes on anything on the above?
- What is a realistic timeline to start changing anything listed above?
Use the same time audit template to outline your ideal day!
Step 3: Replace
Replacing the old system is where we go full circle back to Parkinson’s Law. This law is for time management, load management, and even energy management. All 3 must be kept in mind when establishing activities (work or leisure) for your ideal day, and ideal life.
Work expands to the time allotted to a task. With this law, it allows us to reduce the time for our activities. Parkinson’s Law of compressing time inherently makes us do two things better. FOCUS AND FILTER. We will focus on what’s important and filter out everything that is not serving others, fulfillment, or God.
This 3-step overhaul system generated a model for how I show up to work and in life. Below are my 10 Commandments for establishing and obeying Parkinson’s Law of compression in my work life. These are extremely practical for my work-life operating system, so take this and replace it with your own personal commandments and systems.
- Thou shalt not have meetings on Mondays or Fridays.
- Thou shalt not open emails or social media before 9 AM.
- Thou shalt not accept a meeting the same day I receive the request.
- Though shalt not accept an administrative task on a day when I am working on a major project.
- Thou shalt not accept or conduct a meeting without an agenda.
- Thou shalt not have more than one major project on my to-do list for the days I’m meeting free.
- Thou shalt not hold a 30-minute or hour-long meeting as a default.
- Thou shalt not hold meetings back to back unless it’s on the same topic/theme.
- Thou shalt always have flexible hours every day for family, faith, fitness, and friends, (my core values)
- Thou shalt not steal time from others in the manner that I also look to protect my time. (Do unto others as you would have them to do unto you).
Like the real 10 commandments of the Bible, no one is perfect at obedience. There are exceptions as life happens in real time, so my list of Parkinson’s commandments are sometimes broken laws. But because I have established an operating system at work with boundaries according to Parkinson’s Law and God’s law, my time is much more intentional, focused, and fulfilled.
This can also be the case for you.
So if you are looking for a place to start, apply the practical 4 steps below.
- Shorten Meetings. Condense your meetings by 1/2 the time than the default for your practice or in your workplace. Test it out and be sure to send an agenda ahead of time.
- Set Meeting Free Days. Make 2 days of the week meeting free while still compressing your meetings to be shorter and not back to back. Practice time blocking your major projects.
- Perform a Quota Assessment. Humans have limits. Learn when to stretch. Learn when to say no. Learn to delegate. Doing a time audit and applying the MANDATE MODEL is a great place to really look at your task list holistically. One call out, we must understand that every human is unique not only in gifts and talents but in the approach and time applied to the skill. This is all important when trying to manage a day, a work week, or life. We have to be real with who we are…own it, embrace it, and love it.
- Lock in a Morning Routine. Establish an unbreakable morning routine that has nothing to do about your day job. Work on yourself and your family before jumping into work.
If you are interested in my work-life operating system in full detail, click here.
Your relationship with time is just as important as your relationship with work. Apply Parkinson’s Law to help you focus and filter out the fluff…and experience the life that you have been dreaming of!