Why Do We End Up Doing Everything At The Last Minute? Parkinson’s Law

Cyril Northcote Parkinson was an English historian who worked for many years in the British Civil Service. The experience he gained throughout his work allowed him to publish a book in 1957 entitled “Parkinson’s law and other management studies.” In this treatise he formulated his famous law which, in reality, is not just one but several.

Parkinson carefully observed the way in which work was carried out in state agencies. Based on his everyday experience, he managed to find patterns that allowed him to postulate his basic principles. Parkinson’s Law can be summarized in three fundamental postulates:

• “The work expands to fill the time available for its completion”
• “Expenses increase until all income is covered”
• “The time devoted to any item on the agenda is inversely proportional to its importance”

Since its formulation, connoisseurs of the subject have verified time and again the validity of Parkinson’s Law. Likewise, it has served as a guide to propose new methods of work and time management, for the sake of efficiency.

Parkinson’s Law and time management

The main application of Parkinson’s Law has been in time management. His first postulate indicates: “The work expands until filling the time available for its realization.” This means that if you have an hour to do a task, you will spend an hour doing it. But if you have a month, it will take a month.

The truth is that every day we witness the validity of this law. For example, when students have two or three months to submit work and end up doing it 24 hours before the due date. Or when a work task is due to finish in the afternoon and you ramble until a couple of hours before the due date and during that period you do everything that you had not done.

This principle is related to another postulate that Parkinson called the “Law of Procrastination.” She states that when you have time, you will always tend to postpone everything you need to do. But why does this happen? Simply because time is a highly subjective concept. It depends more on our internal perception than on the actual passing of the hours.

Parkinson also noted that the more time we spend doing a task, the more complex it becomes and the more difficult it is to finish. If you have the perception that there is a lot of time ahead, we pay more attention to the details and tend to go around the bush, trying to cover even the smallest aspects of the work. On the other hand, if we have little time, “let’s get down to business”, without giving the matter so much thought.

A bureaucratic evil that we all copy

Parkinson also noted that the least important issues are the ones that end up taking up most of the time. Hence his third major postulate “The time devoted to any item on the agenda is inversely proportional to its importance.”

The relevant issues seem to demand a serious attitude and require precise approaches. That is why they must be dispatched more efficiently. On the contrary, trivial matters make everyone want to participate and say whatever comes to mind. Therefore, more time is spent on them.

Although Parkinson’s Law was postulated after looking at bureaucracy, the truth is that it applies to virtually everyone. And it not only involves aspects related to time management, but also extends to other areas of life, such as expenses or the organization of physical spaces.

Parkinson indicates that “Expenses increase until all income is covered.” This means that no matter how much you earn, you will always find a way to “be level” and even with debt. A person can live on a certain income without any problem. If your income increases, this does not mean that you will have a surplus from now on, but rather that you will organize your finances in such a way that there is nothing left.

The result of all these behavior patterns is gross inefficiency. Time and money are never enough. However, if we look at it in detail, this is due to the wrong way we manage them. In fact, this article you are reading was written following Parkinson’s recommendation: divide your work into sub-tasks and set a time limit to complete them. The result: I finished in half the usual time. How about? Do you dare to try it?