Let me tell you a quick story.
Back when I was in high school, our teacher wanted us to write an essay.
But because it was supposed to be a longer paper, he gave us 1 whole month to finish it.
I was a massive procrastinator back then and I since the deadline was so far away, I didn't
even think about starting writing yet.
Instead I decided my time was better spent playing video games.
Days passed and the deadline was coming closer and closer, but I hadn't written a single word.
About 2 days before we had to turn in our essay, I realized the deadline was so close
that I might not be able to finish in time.
This is when I went into full-on panic mode.
With only 2 days left, I started writing with pure focus.
Finishing that paper became my number one priority and everything else became secondary.
I didn't think about video games or anything else.
All of my focus was on that essay.
Thankfully, in the end, I managed to finish and turn in my paper in time.
And to top it off, I also got a solid grade.
Let me introduce you to the Parkinson's Law.
The law states this: "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."
This might sound a bit confusing, but let me explain what it means
If someone gives you one week to mow their lawn, it will take you a whole week to do it.
If they give you one month, it will take you one month.
And if they give you one year to do it, god forbid, it will take you one whole year.
Essentially the more time you have to complete something, the longer it will take you to
finish it.
And the less time you have to complete your goal, the more likely it is that you'll complete
it in proposed time.
But if a goal or a task does not have a specific deadline set, it will most likely never get done.
Whenever we have something we want to complete, whether it's an essay for school, or mowing
the lawn for someone, we make the mistake of thinking that the more time we give ourselves
to complete it, the better the end result will be.
However more often that not, most of that time is spent procrastinating and only a small
portion of it is spent on the thing we want to achieve.
If someone gave you one month to mow their lawn, it would probably take you 29 days before
you even began, simply because you know it could be completed in one day.
So that's 29 days of procrastinating, because you know you have more than enough time, before
you get started.
The same thing happened with my high school essay.
Most of the month was spent doing other things and only a small portion of the time was spent
on writing.
If I was given a week instead of one month to write that same paper, I would have finished
it in one week.
You can think of a deadline, as a fire.
When the deadline is far away, that fire is small.
It doesn't threaten your life yet, that's why you don't extinguish it right away.
But instead you focus on other things.
However as the deadline gets closer and closer, that fire gets bigger and bigger.
What eventually happens is that the initially small fire has gotten so big, that your whole
house might burn down.
And now you obviously don't have a choice but to extinguish it as fast as possible.
So that becomes your primary focus.
When your house is burning down you don't procrastinate and waste your time on unimportant things.
You don't check email for just 10 minutes.
You don't have a quick scroll though Twitter or Instagram.
Nor do you think about playing video games.
No, those things that usually make up a huge part of your procrastination, become secondary
and unimportant.
Instead, extinguishing that fire becomes your number one priority.
In other words, because your deadline is so close, or because the fire is so big, you
prioritize your tasks much better.
You can't afford to procrastinate or get lost in unimportant details, like most people tend
to do.
Instead you're fully focused on that fire.
The Parkinson's Law is important to be conscious about, from the time management perspective.
If you know something can be completed in a day, don't give yourself two days to finish it.
You might think that giving yourself extra time will get you better results.
However as I've pointed out, most of the time is wasted on unimportant things.
And the end result of a shorter deadline is actually often times better, because you're
not distracted and you have greater focus.
However you should be reasonable with the time frame of the deadlines.
If you know something will take a week to complete, don't set the deadline for tomorrow.
This may sound obvious, but it is something people do when they first hear about the Parkinson's Law.
However you can still try to push the limits of what is possible, and maybe you'll find
some shortcuts along the way.
Worst case scenario is you get some work done, but you need to give it a polish.
Now, whether your deadline is too short or too far away, it's still better than no deadline
at all.
Remember, if there is no deadline, your goal will probably never be achieved.
So if you don't have a fire that's getting bigger, make sure you create one.
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