Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Parkinson's Law

The 4-Hour Workweek has been creating buzz lately. The author - Timothy Ferriss in a recent podcast promoting the book mentioned Parkinson's Law. Simply stated, it says:

"Work increases in proportion to the amount of time available."

Stated another way, "a task will take as much time as you will allot for it."

This is complementary to Pareto's principle - the notion that 80% of the results or effects arise from 20% of the causes or inputs. By extension, this means that the longer we work, the more we tend to focus on the trivial tasks with minimal impact on our careers. The problem is far greater in larger corporations with rigid, in-built structures that require people to put in long hours carrying out mundane tasks and sitting-in on meetings.

At Ascendus, while managing projects, we've noticed that having more time on a project does not necessarily translate into better output. What works is having short, tight deadlines with clearly defined outcomes. Periods of intense work should be punctuated with periods of rest, recuperation and rejuvenation.

What do you think?

1 comment:

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