The adage to Parkinson’s Law is ‘work expands to fill the time available for its completion.’
An example of this is if you give a task to someone in your team that should realistically take two hours, then they will complete it within that two hours as long as they focus solely on it and avoid distractions.
However, if you give the same task to the same person in your team but give them four hours or eight hours to complete it, the likelihood is that they will procrastinate and fill their time with multiple things instead of only focusing on the one task.
This law theorises that giving a realistic deadline to tasks and considering how your team will handle things will be beneficial to prevent procrastination and rushing through the task at the eleventh hour.
Deadlines as motivation
Procrastination is a key part of this law.
Knowing that you have longer to complete something can lead to easier distractions and a lack of urgency within the task. Whereas a set deadline can promote more effort and motivation.
Understanding and preventing deadlines
Plan and start early.
Communicate with your team to find out how they work best and how you can set tasks and projects with deadlines that will be well-received.
More time = Less effort needed
Less time = More effort needed
To find out more about Parkinson’s Law and how it can apply to your business and team, contact us and speak to our expert accountants.