Parkinson's Law - Work expands to fill the time available
When setting deadlines or allocating time
What Does “Parkinson's Law - Work expands to fill the time available” Mean?
Tasks take as much time as you allocate. Generous deadlines ensure work fills all available time through scope creep and inefficiency. Tight deadlines force efficiency.
Origin and History
The law comes from a satirical essay by British naval historian C. Northcote Parkinson, published in The Economist in 1955, which opens: 'It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.'
What Happens When You Break It
Generous deadlines ensure procrastination, inefficiency, scope creep, and work consuming far more time than necessary.
Benefits of Following This Rule
Tight reasonable deadlines force efficiency, prevent procrastination, increase focus, accomplish more, and prevent work from unnecessarily expanding.