Have you ever noticed that the few days before a vacation you can get loads of work done? And when you return from vacation you may take an entire day to complete just one task?
This phenomenon is called Parkinson’s Law. Parkinson’s Law states that work will expand to fill the amount of time allotted to it. It’s a law that project managers fight constantly when it comes to creating time estimates in their projects. For example, a project team member might know a task will probably take 25 hours to complete but the team member wants to pad the task just a little. You know the drill, people pad the time estimate in case things go wrong - the built-in extra time helps the worker. So the team member’s 25-hour activity is reported to take 40 hours. Guess what? Parkinson’s Law will ensure that the activity will magically take 40 hours to complete - because that’s how much time is available to complete the work.
Parkinson’s Law is important in the Lifelong Project too. If you give yourself more than enough time to complete an activity you’ll use all the allotted time to complete the work. The Lifelong Project is based on a one-year commitment to your goals. Not all of your goals, however, should take a year to complete. Goals that can be accomplished in a day should take a day to complete. And goals that can be accomplished in six months, well, you give yourself six months. Resist the urge to pad your goals with extra time - or you’ll risk the realization of Parkinson’s Law.
Goal setting is just the start of reaching your ambitions. You’ll need planning in order to achieve your goals. Part of planning is to plan for time management. Time is, in this project, a predetermined deadline. Within this one-year agreement with yourself you’ll need to examine each goal you’ve created and determine four things:
- What actions do you need to complete in order to reach your goal?
- What risks are attached to each action?
- How long will each action take to complete?
- What is the result of each action?
You really need to document your goals, the answers to these questions, and set a deadline for each goal - not just a deadline for the entire project. I’d love to hear about your projects and how you’re managing your project time.
