Increase Your Intensity with Parkinson’s Law

Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you’re doomed.

– Ray Bradbury

Loosely stated, Parkinson’s Law says that work expands to consume the amount of time allotted for it.

When most people first hear this concept, they nod along. We all get it. When we have an hour to run errands, it takes an hour. When we have the afternoon, it takes up the whole afternoon. When we’re given four weeks to prepare a lecture, we’ll somehow use up all four weeks to do it. Where does the time go?

By contrast, when circumstances slam us against an impossible deadline–if we want the pot of gold badly enough–we find a way to make it happen.

Most of us use Parkinson’s Law only in desperate times, and by accident. It’s the adrenaline-fueled dash to the airport to make the plane. The coffee-spiked all-nighter to turn in a document. It’s stressful. And fear-motivated.

Used unskillfully, it will make you crazy and/or make your work sloppy. Yet this tool is double-edged. Can we flip it around, make it work for us? By “racing the clock” in just the right way, it is possible to complete writing projects faster without sacrificing quality. Try this:

STEP ONE: Pick a writing project that you do on a recurring basis.

For instance: Authoring my company’s monthly newsletter.

STEP TWO: Estimate how long the project will take.

I’m guessing it will take two hours to draft and edit.

STEP THREE: Record the actual amount of time it takes.

It actually took me two-and-a-half hours. This is your baseline.

STEP FOUR: The next time you do it, aim to beat your last score by 10%.

Don’t be a hero. A 10% improvement is excellent. For instance, if your baseline is two hours (120 minutes), work to finish by 108 minutes.

STEP FIVE: Rinse and repeat.

Monitor to ensure continued high performance, and then move on to optimize your next writing project. At a certain point, you may not feel you can cut any more time from your writing; that’s fine. The key is that you decide how much time a project deserves rather than the other way around.

HINTS:

• Start small. Score quick victories out of the gate.
• Be smart about it. Avoid using this technique on projects like contracts or briefs where sloppiness has serious consequences.
• Reward yourself. Once you hit your goal, celebrate. Take yourself out for a nice lunch. Learn more about Adam Kosloff and Virtuoso Content here: https://lp.virtuosocontent.com/