What is Parkinson's Law?

http://theadvanceshow.com/what-is-par... Parkinson's law? You don't know what Parkinson's law is? Well, you will by the time you finish watching this video. Stay tuned. Hey, it's Brian Dixon and you are watching the Advance Show. Your daily pep talk to help you crush it at work and step up at home. Parkinson's Law states that the amount of time you give a task to take is equivalent to the amount of time that task will take. For example, if you have a week to finish a research paper for class, the paper will take all week finish. Parkinson's law is the reason that high achievers can wing it in high school. And that's exactly what I did. It explains how you can wait till the night before the major paper is due, stay up all night finishing the paper, and still get a decent grade. The paper itself only takes five or so hours to complete but most people spend an hour here and an hour there over the course of a week to finish the paper. Many high achievers wait until the night before the paper is due and spent all five hours that night plugging away to meet the deadline. This plan, for the most part, works. Unless you have something else come up at the last minute. Then you are screwed. Otherwise it works. When working on my doctoral degree I realized that I could use Parkinson's law to my favor. Instead of just waiting until the last possible minute to complete an assignment, I moved up the deadline. If, for example, I had a paper that was due in two weeks from now I would look at my calendar and block off the evening where I would act as if the paper was due the next day. For example it was due in two Mondays from now, I would start on Wednesday night and act as if the paper was due Thursday morning. I would stay up all night and do everything I would have done had I waited until the last minute to finish the paper. I would do the best I possibly could in the five or so hours I would put into the paper. When I woke up on Thursday morning, I spent the rest of the day feeling satisfied. It was actually quite amazing because I shifted the stress from distress to eustress, the kind that motivates and invigorates you. Thursday I was walking on clouds I was so excited that I had completed this paper and I knew that all of my friends would be stressing out. What I would then do is allow the paper to simmer. I would put it aside and wait until the following Monday (still a week before the paper was due) and I would read the paper with a fresh set of eyes. I then went into copyediting mode, looking for spelling, grammar, and word choice errors that most students would overlook because of their rush to the deadline. This process might only take an hour, but would dramatically improve the quality of my paper. Now, here is where I got really crazy. I would then schedule office hours with my professor and show him my finished paper. Not only does this show that I finished the a paper and could receive a grade, but it would really impress him. Here's how the conversation would go: Brian, "Hey, I was really excited about the paper and I wanted to finish it early so that you would have some time give me some feedback. Is that okay? Teacher, "Umm... Okay." Brian, "Great. I worked really hard on it and feel like it's some of my best work but I want to continually improve and make sure that I'm really growing. Would it be possible for you to take a glance at it before I officially turned it in? Maybe you have a few suggestions about how I can make it even better?" Teacher, "WTF? Is this a joke? Seriously... where are the hidden cameras. Nobody does that. Is it possible to give you a grade higher than an A? Amazing!" See, here's the thing. No one goes the extra mile. Everyone tries to skate by on the least they can possibly do. But not you. You get it done early. You punch twice as hard. So now you're older and your juggling kids, and family, and work, and life. Use parkinson's law. Set a short deadline and hustle to the finish line BEFORE life happens. When you put off a project till it is due- that is the night your baby will get sick. You'll have a flat tire. You're roof will leak. And your project will suffer. Instead. Set a short deadline and experience the peace of mind. If you are ready to take your life and work to the next level, you need to check out my life work course. Just click this button here to watch a free webinar outlining my 7 productivity tips for busy leaders. Do you want to get notified when I post a new video? Just click the subscribe button. Thanks for watching this video. Leave a note in the comments if this helped you out.