Time does what it does best : It Ticks

Work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion -- Parkinson's Law

This one law in block-quote above, this one statement ---- is so profound in its own way that it touches on every facet, every small phase, every thing we do in our lives.

It could be positive aspects in our lives or negative.

Important things or trivial.

It could be at our young age or old.

It affects everything and the impact is huge though it may not look that way at those junctures of time as you live in.

But the results are very pulpable once those times have already elapsed.

Let me quote an example from my own life experience some 5-6 years ago.

Back then my average get-ready time (from getting off the bed to leaving for work) was around 50 mins.

Then I considered this 50-min period to be quite an optimum time-frame knowing the number of tasks I used to undertake.

It was secondary to know that these tasks though essential were not much productive.

Then covid hit. Work-from-home became a new norm.

No cab to pick. No hard-and-fast rules to make each task go through execution.

No rush.

Cut-2.

8 months later I realized that the same get-ready time had reached 1 hour 20 mins.

And then, it shot to 1 hr 30 mins couple of months later.

The value of those additional 40 mins was not much then as I had less of activities to finish in a given day.

But fast-forward 4-5 months and I realized how criminal waste those 40 mins were.

This delayed realization came because now I had lot more things to do and many things to execute.

The day-schedule looked busier and number of activities were higher.

In a nutshell, I did have a crunch in my time to accommodate everything I wanted to do in a 24-hour window.

Had I not experienced this tug-of-war of time, I would have never realized what sub-consciously I was doing.

I was taking more time to do the tasks that I should have completed in much lesser time. Possibly in half of given time.

My quest to have optimum time-periods to finish specific tasks landed me right in front of what we call --- Parkinson Law.

"WORK EXPANDS TO FILL THE TIME ALLOTTED FOR ITS COMPLETION".

Simply stated --- Within reasonable realm of things, within reasonable time-frames, the time you allocate for specific task is more or less the same time period you would take to finish that task/job. And how much time you give does not matter.

You give yourself 30 minutes to write an article, you would finish writing that article in the stipulated period of 30 minutes.

The same article if been given an hour would take an hour to complete.

Some would argue that the quality of the article would be better if given a 1 hour window than 30 minutes.

I agree that to be true. But only to an extent.

I would say its a half-truth.

The quality of that article would improve only for few more mins and then the the quality stay the same or even diminish.

That is why I stated above ---> "within reasonable time-frames".

And considering the productivity factor, those additional minutes spent does not justify at all.

I would still prefer to complete them in those 30 allotted minutes and get the job done, rather than favoring that slight better quality or content if given more time.

With more and more things to do, I soon realized that giving a slightly less time than what we would expect a specific task to get completed is the BEST WAY FORWARD.

ITS FAR MORE PRODUCTIVE.

And on a long run, way more satisfying, fruitful and lot progressive towards our bigger goals.

You would feel that you are getting things done. Literally.

With this mindset of giving less time (than expected) for any task and focusing on being more productive rather than being just busy, we could have a following set of guidelines:

1) Jot down the task and sub-tasks on a piece of paper

2) Keeping the sub-tasks in mind, calculate the optimum time it would take to complete all of them.

3) Reduce that optimum time by 10% and call it the 'Standard Time'.

4) Put aside all the other tasks and try to complete this specific task within that 'Standard Time'.

You might be stretched with your efforts in those earlier days as you start to practice this.

But as days become weeks and you practice this religiously, it would be very evident that you are not only able to finish the tasks in 'Standard time' but also able to reduce the time as you do it repeatedly.

This whole process starts and ends with us being aware of how our time is being spent. Being conscious of it.

Rest of it is just a reaction of the actions we take to utilize our time judiciously, wisely, smartly and productively.

As you practice this, you would see yourself accomplishing more and more each day.

Lets save our time.

And make those seconds, minutes and hours count.

And days, weeks and months would automatically be taken care.

Do share your comments with how it works for you.

I would be eager to know your results.

Follow Dhaval Shah for more such insights on habits and behaviors.

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