How I Will Be Rich

Matt and I played a little flip-flop on the website writing today. So if you’re wondering where ‘Ol Matt ran off to, check out his post over at our other site, Be Healthy and Relax. Now on to what I have to say…

The name Parkinson’s Law may be one you have not heard of before, but I’m sure that you, along with the rest of us, tend to fall into the trap of its concept. Simply put, Parkinson’s Law is a theory that says, if given a task and a certain amount of time to complete it, you fill every living second until the completion time to finish the project. You will basically find mundane tasks until you feel the time pinch to complete the task. We have dealt with this theory since grade school. This is when we developed and learned to exercise Parkinson’s Law’s largest contributor: Procrastination. We cannot deny that procrastination has taken control of us from time to time. There are a lucky few out there that are more apt to taming their procrastination, but knowing and understanding how to conquer Parkinson’s Law is definitely one of the most beneficial steps to becoming more productive and allowing you to control your own life.

The most common place that Parkinson’s Law is put to test is in the workplace, during 9-5. Each day we are allotted this socially accepted time to complete the various tasks which are assigned to us. Why 8? Who was the genius that told us that we needed to mull around for 8 hours to complete tasks that could be easily shortened into 2 or 3? Of course this example does not relate to everyone’s working situation, but it can definitely shorten the time we believe a project takes to be completed. Being stuck in the 9-5 can make you feel like there is no incentive to work more diligently, but doing so will free your time to become more effective within the company while possibly opening doors to learn qualities of a higher position. With this ability you are becoming a greater treasure to your company, as well as gaining the entrepreneurial skills that you’d like to have for the future. Here are a few tips that should help us all get over the evils of Parkinson’s Law…

• On a personal level, keep your to-do lists more concise and meaningful. Don’t clutter it with unimportant tasks that just fill time. Set deadlines to your meaningful tasks to times that seem almost impossible. You’ll find a way to complete them if you try.
• On a working level, break down the 8 hour day into a bunch of smaller deadlines. Control as much time as you can within your given workday. Doing this will force you to complete those previously long and drawn out projects.
• On both a personal and a working level, use the 80/20 law I pointed out in my post, The 100 Year Old Golden Rule. Once again, separate the important from the unimportant. Use this to free up more of your day so you can feel like you have that huge load off your back.

Hopefully putting a name to the struggles of procrastination and time management has helped you learn to take more control of them. The key is to bang out all of those daily tasks with the most efficient methods so you can spend the rest of that lost time on yourself, and with family and friends. Good luck!

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