Parkinson’s law

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” If something must be done in a year, it’ll be done in a year. If something must be done next week, it’ll be done next week. If something must be done tomorrow, it’ll be done tomorrow.

We plan based on how much time we have, and when the deadline approaches, we start to make choices to do what must be done to complete the task by the deadline.

Whether or not you’re aware of it, you’ve probably experienced Parkinson’s Law many times in real life:

  • In college, you had all semester to write a paper, and yet you wrote it in the last 72 hours before the deadline, and emailed it in at 5am on the morning it was due.
  • You had all week to finalize a proposal, but waited to do it until 4:30pm on the Friday.
  • All year you knew you had a wedding or beach vacation to get ready for but you put off healthy eating and went on a crash diet four weeks before the trip.

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