The Great Acting Blog: “Parkinson’s Law – Getting More Important Stuff Done”

The Great Acting Blog: “Parkinson’s Law – Getting More Important Stuff Done”

I am always trying to find new ways of being more effective,* and this is especially true at the moment because over the next year I will be undertaking several sizeable projects, each of which will take me way out of my comfort zone. I recently stumbled upon Parkinson’s Law and found it’s central notion to be particularly captivating;

“It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for it’s completion.” 

The central inference of this statement is that we have far more control over our output than we might possibly believe: that whether we struggle to get stuff done or not is a choice, that we are not in fact at the mercy of a universe conspiring against us. If it’s a choice then, why don’t we choose to be more effective?

If work expands to fill the available time for it’s completion then we can be more effective and get more done by making less time available for each task. Surely this approach will turbo-charge  our whole operation?

Well, that’s the theory anyway. I’m going to give it a go and will report back.

*I define being effective as getting the tasks which are crucial to the accomplishment of our big goals done, and doing them properly and within the timeframe we need to.

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