Parkinson's Law

Parkinson’s Law is the old adage that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion¹. This is important in the context of setting a deadline, too lax of a deadline and you end up with wasted time and listlessness. Conversely, a unrealistic deadline leads to poor morale and stress.

The term was first coined by Cyril Northcote Parkinson in a humorous essay he wrote for “The Economist” in 1955².

1. Stanier, J. Parkinson’s Law: It’s Real, So Use It. https://theengineeringmanager.substack.com/p/parkinsons-law-its-real-so-use-it (2024).

2. Boogaard, K. How to overcome Parkinson’s Law. https://www.atlassian.com/blog/productivity/what-is-parkinsons-law (2022).