We will see that the man will post the postcard in a matter of minutes however the woman will take the whole day. It is because the pressure on the man was relatively higher that made him focus on things that matter like posting the postcard. On the other hand, the woman had a lot of free time which made her do the same work that took only minutes in a whole day.
All because of the less work pressure. If we take this example to the professional level, we will see that the employees who have their tasks and their deadlines defined for each of the tasks pay more attention to things that they need to do. However, the employees who think they can complete those tasks by working always run late for their deadlines.
This is a serious issue because, on a professional level, it will significantly affect the performance and outcome of the business. There is a great way of dealing with the problems created with time management. It is called Parkinson’s Law. Here we will discuss what is Parkinson’s law and how implementing it is beneficial.
What Is Parkinson’s Law?
This is a law found in 1955 by Cyril Northcote who was a famous British historian. The law states that “work expands to fill the time available for its completion”. If we take this lay in easy words, we will see that this law tells us that we can deal with the tasks in a better way if we set specific deadlines for each of the tasks.
However if we tell ourselves that we have a whole day to complete this 215 minutes task, we will never be able to complete this task in a shorter time and if we tell ourselves that the time is short for the little task, the task will be achieved in the time stamp decided.
Significant things that need to be tested before you apply Parkinson’s Law.
When you are willing to assess your capabilities and make your deadlines yourself and stick to them, the first thing that you need to know is the capabilities that you have. The same is the case with your employees so when you are assigning them deadlines, you must consider the capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses of everyone.
Then you can assign specific deadlines. Here we will discuss some of the most important factors that need to be checked at least once before making deadlines.
Pomodoro technique.
The first thing that you need to check is if using this technique will be beneficial for your work. This technique tells us to divide the total workload into tasks and smaller chunks and have a small deadline for each task. The best thing about this technique is that after the deadline of every task says it be 20 minutes, the employee will get a break for say 10 to 15 minutes.
Not only this will significantly increase the working speed of the employees, but it will also make them feel confident in dealing with smaller chunks of tasks.
Track how the time is being spent.
Tracking how each minute of your working time is being spent is very important. It is because when you check how you are spending the time; you will know what things you are doing are productive for you and how much time you are giving to useless things.
By this analysis, you will be having to figure out the things that need to be removed from your working schedule. By working in it, you can also get rid of them.
Are breaks available during the working hours?
A break is something that allows the worker to restore a lot of things while he is working. Some of them are listed below.
- Breaks can help you process and retain information about the coming tasks in a better way.
- You will be more than satisfied with achieving your previous goals.
- A break can help you restore your energy for working.
- Breaks will increase your productivity.
As taking a break during the working hours is very beneficial for the employees, we can see that all of the successful companies provide their employees with a very interesting timetable for work and breaks between their work routine.
Do you have an accountability partner with you?
Sometimes, managing things all by yourself is not the optimal solution. This is the time when you need someone to help you. This is the right time to check that if you have an accountability partner. It is because that accountability partner will help the employees stay on track by paying attention to things that are the most important.
A good accountability partner can also increase the personal productivity of the employees.
Make a strict rule regarding deadlines.
Some tasks are those that need to be done daily. This can be checking your work-related emails. People waste their time by checking them during work. If you want to increase your productivity, you can make a rule about everyone checking the emails in the first few minutes of their office time. This will eliminate the time wasted by eliminating distractions.
Make a special time slot for the useless activities.
Some activities do not seem to be useful for the employees and the company as well, but they have a huge impact on personal betterment. So instead of letting people do these things during their working time, you can make a rule for them to do that at a specific time. This will not only provide them with some recreational time, but they will also feel better.
Nobody works late.
The last thing that you need to check is that nobody works late. It is because when we know that we can work late, ye will be prone to missing our deadlines. Opposingly when we know that this is the final deadline to complete the work, the productivity will be increased.
How you can apply the Parkinson’s Law.
If you are looking to implement Parkinson’s Law, here are the steps that you need to follow to implement it in your work life.
1. Focusing on the more important tasks.
Consider checking the daily tasks and goals and know which of them are important. When you have a list of the important tasks, make sure to mark them as urgent.
2. Giving proper time slots to each of the important tasks.
On the list of the urgent tasks, allot some time to each of the tasks and that will be the deadline to complete that task.
3. Cut the selected time to half.
Once you have assigned the time to the tasks, you must cut the time in half. This will create some pressure on the worker and this pressure will create the urge to complete that task. The person will also not be distracted before the task is not completed.
4. Review the final amount of stress.
When you have cut the time in half, assess if that shorted deadline is having any stress on you or not. IT is because the right amount of stress will increase your productivity. On the other hand, if the stress is too much to handle, or too little to worry about, the productivity will not increase.
The benefits of applying Parkinson’s Law.
The employees that have difficulties in managing the balance in their work-life find Parkinson’s Law to be extremely useful. Here we will discuss some of the benefits that you can have when you apply Parkinson’s Law in your work life.
• Employees will not be wasting their important time.
Each of the employees will know about their deadlines and their break times. Shorter deadlines will motivate them to do the tasks and this will keep them away from being distracted from little things.
• The important tasks are getting better focus and time.
As the most important tasks will be treated as urgent deadlines, they will get better attention from the employees.
• The tasks will not be late.
The perfect balance between the working hours and break times will keep the employees fresh, energetic, and productive at the same time. This will not only keep their quality consistent, but it will also make sure that none of the deadlines is missed.
Final thoughts.
Instead of bombarding a lot of deadlines and tasks to the employees that will pressurize the employees, Parkinson’s law focuses on providing a suitable amount of stress to the employees. This stress will be easy to handle because of the short deadlines but the addition of things like breaks while the working time makes it easy for the employees to manage things.
