This is the reason why procrastination is so prevalent.
But how does one overcome it?
What Is Parkinsons Law?
Parkinsons Law is an adage, famously coined byCyril Northcote Parkinson, a British Naval Historian.
To understand the concept, consider a person tasked with writing an essay within a 48-hour deadline.
The person, on the first day, will collect relevant data for research and form an outline.
On the next, they will get to work and write the first draft of the essay.
What if the person was given a 24-hour deadline?
Now think about how often you have come across similar circumstances.
you might probably think of several instances where you were given a task with a longer deadline.
Another major cause of procrastination is uncertainty about the next steps.
If you dont know what youll do once you finish a project, youre likely to delay its completion.
That is why its important toset SMART goalsto overcome Parkinsons law.
Schedule Effectively
We all know the importance of scheduling.
It helps us remain conscious of how we spend our time, minimizing the negative impact of Parkinsons law.
For effective scheduling and planning, it’s possible for you to usecalendars apps to schedule tasks.
However, you should always include a cut-off time in your schedule.
Give Yourself Intermediate Deadlines
Parkinsons law hits the hardest when youve got a huge project with a long deadline.
A longer deadline means youve got more time to relax and get distracted.
To avoid that, you oughta break the project down into smaller tasks.
Now set intermediate deadlines for each of the smaller tasks and schedule them accordingly.
Track Time
Its likely that your estimates will be inaccurate, initially.
You might give yourself 3 hours for a project.
But while working on it, you find that youll need another 2 hours to complete it.
If that happens, simply readjust your schedule and give yourself extra time.
Setting accurate deadlines for your projects helps you plan them effectively.
For that, you could start tracking the time it takes to complete each project.
There are severalgreat time-tracking appsout there that you could use to track how much time a particular project takes.
This helps make better estimates and set more realistic deadlines for your projects and prevents you from wasting time.
Instead, we think about how much time were given for the project.
That is where Parkinsons law comes into play.
To prevent that from happening, use timeboxing.
Say youve got three days to get a project done.
Upon evaluation, you find that it can be done within three hours.
Set a 3-hour deadline for the project and strive to complete it within the timeframe.
With timeboxing, you become more aware of how and where youre using your time.
When theres an impending deadline in your mind, youre less likely to procrastinate.
Use the Pomodoro Technique
Like timeboxing, you canuse the Pomodoro method to become more productiveand beat Parkinsons law.
The Pomodoro method involves short, but intensive, work sessions with short breaks in between.
This removes the possibility of Parkinsons law taking action.
But don’t just stop there!
