If you’ve never heard of Parkinson’s Law, chances are you have experienced it in your day to day life. Parkinson's Law is defined as follows:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. — Cyril Northcote Parkinson, 1905

The famous quote “if you want something done, give it to the busiest person” is an example of this rule in action — the busy person gets it done in a timely fashion because they have only a small amount of time to do it.

Developing an awareness of how Parkinson's Law affects our daily operations is quite powerful. The most common application of Parkinson's Law is to better utilize our time, which we will explore first. But by expanding its scope to all of our resources and all of our decisions, we unlock its true potential — we explore that second.

Parkinson's Law and Our Time

Procrastination is a direct result of Parkinson’s Law. If we are given six weeks to write an essay, generate a client proposal, or renew our driver's license, it will take six weeks. We spend the first five weeks and five days either putting it off entirely or wasting time on the easy parts, avoiding the Resistance. Then suddenly, with two days left, we get it together. We crank out the essay. We draft the proposal. We call the DMV. What has been dragging out for an extended period of time ends up taking far less once we commit to doing it.

So how can we leverage this phenomenon?

Constraints.

By constraining the amount of time allotted for certain things, we become more efficient. Need to schedule a meeting? Put 10 minutes on the calendar and make it work. Boss asks for something by the end of the week that you know will take just a few hours? Tell them you’ll have it to them by the end of the day. Put six things on your daily to-do list instead of three — you'll likely get all six done.

But there is a more powerful underlying idea here. What are we doing at a higher level? We are taking a resource, time, and placing a constraint on it such that it is better utilized. The natural progression is to think about where else we can apply this idea. The answer is just about everywhere.

Parkinson's Law and All Resources

Generalizing beyond time, we can think of Parkinson's Law as follows:

The demand placed on a resource expands or contracts to match the available supply.

In our first example, our resource was time. By placing restrictions on the amount of time available, we adapt and use less of it. We can extend the scope by asking the question: for any given resource, how can adding a constraint force me to better utilize it? We can then directly apply that constraint or use it as a thought experiment to reframe our perspective.

Direct Applications

We can directly apply Parkinson's Law in two ways:

Identify the finite resources in our life and place constraints to better utilize them
Reduce the number of decisions we have to make by constraining the options available to us

There are countless areas in which we can apply this — let's look at a few practical examples.

Personal Finances

Our spending will expand or contract to match the amount available to spend. Give ourselves $X to spend each month and we'll adapt your lifestyle to spend it all. To use this to our advantage, we can choose an amount we want to save each month, invest that amount immediately after each paycheck, and spend the rest.

By limiting the supply (the number of dollars we can spend), how we utilize it adapts (we better allocate each dollar).

Attention and Focus

Many of us spend too much time on our phones. If we place limits on our screen time, we will be more selective about how and when we use it. The idea can be used on our computers as well, restricting distracting websites to only certain times of the day.

By limiting the supply (the amount of screen time available), how we utilize it adapts (we spend more time focused less time on Instagram).

Health

Some of the most popular health trends are just applications of Parkinson's Law. Intermittent fasting restricts the times during which we can eat, which causes people to eat less. The Ketogenic Diet constrains an entire macronutrient (carbs), which reduces the number of foods available to consume. Crossfit workouts constrain either the length of time or number of reps to increase the density of the workout.

Things We Own

Minimalism is another example of Parkinson's Law. If we reduce the number of things we are willing to own, we'll be more selective in what we keep. This can be applied to clothes, gadgets, apps, subscriptions, and even where we live.

What we carry with us when we travel is another great example. If we bring a large suitcase, we'll fill it with things we don't need. If instead, if we bring only a small backpack, we'll be more selective in what comes with us.

Personal Standard

Decision fatigue occurs when we have too many options available. The fewer options available to us, the fewer decisions we have to make. This is why Mark Zuckerberg wears the same shirt every day and why Barack Obama only owned two suits. By reducing the number of decisions we are forced to make, we have the capacity to make better decisions overall.

The best way to do this is to create a Personal Standard on which we rarely compromise. David Cain of Raptitude summarizes this idea in his article Wise People Have Rules for Themselves:

Self-imposed rules aren’t constraints, they’re good decisions made in batches—they’re behavioral boundary markers you get to position yourself, through your own experience and wisdom. A good personal standard clarifies and simplifies, eliminating what would be countless painful decision points.

Each individual's Personal Standard can be different, but there are endless benefits to having one. I take 10,000 steps every day no matter what. I keep electronics off for the first and last hour of the day. I don't drink alcohol two days in a row.

This is the core premise of Jocko Willink's book Discipline Equals Freedom. While some may view these constraints as restrictive, it's actually the opposite. By understanding the boundaries within which we can operate, we have the freedom to do anything within those boundaries.

Thought Experiments

While there are plenty of practical applications of Parkinson's Law, we can also design thought experiments around these constraints that can spark creative insights. Reframing some of the things we do with an extreme constraint can give us a fresh perspective. A few questions I find myself thinking about often:

Peter Thiel's question "Why can't I accomplish my 10 year goals in six months?"
If you could only read 1000 words per day, what sources would you eliminate?
If you could only drink six beers per month, how would you use them?
If you could only do the same five exercises for the rest of your life, which would you choose?
If you could only spend two hours per day working, what would you spend your time on?
If you could only use one of Google, Facebook, Amazon, or Microsoft, which would you choose?
If you could only eat the same three meals every day for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

While these constraints are more extreme and impractical, they can force us to think about problems in novel ways, which inevitably leads to better thinking.

Conclusion

The targeted application of Parkinson's Law has the potential to improve many aspects of our lives. Using it as a lens through which we view our consumption of any resource, we become more efficient, identify what is essential, and do the things that carry more leverage. And we don't even have to necessarily apply it, but creating thought experiments around some of these extreme constraints can refresh our perspective and uncover blind spots in our thinking.