It’s so easy to just kinda work on stuff, take our time and not be terribly productive, especially if there’s no deadline looming.

There is actually a “Law” called Parkinson’s Law that explains this phenomenon. Here it is:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

It was formulated by Cyril Northcote Parkinson (July 30, 1909 – March 9, 1993). And yes, that’s him in the picture to the right.

We know this law works. When we don’t have much of a goal and more importantly a deadline, any task can take just about forever, but when we are under time pressure, we can get a huge amount of work done in a relatively short amount of time.

Of course the big question is, how can we make this work to our advantage? By keeping track of the time we spend and setting ourselves time limits. Let’s look at how we can do this.

When you’re ready to get some productive worktime in, grab a piece of paper, a pen and a kitchen timer. On the paper, list 3 things you need to get done today. Next to each action item, write down how much time you are allowing for this. Be realistic, but don’t allow for more time than you think you’ll need. You can always add more if needed. I like to use 5 minutes for really quick task. Everything else is broken down into intervals of 15 minutes (i.e. 15 min, 30 min, 45, min, 1 hour etc.)

Set your kitchen time and get to work on item number one. Yes, this is a race. Sit down, focus and do your best to get your work done in the time alloted. Once it’s finished, cross the item of your list.

Get up, grab a glass of water, stretch, then move on the item number two and repeat. Do the same for item number three.

Once you have this system down, feel free to add more tasks, but don’t go over 7 items, or your list may start to feel overwhelming. Just work through the items on your list and then add more as needed.

Give it a try and watch your productivity increase.

P.S. If you don’t want to mess with paper and a kitchen timer, take a look at Action Machine Pro – I have it installed on both my computers and it’s working well for me, making sure I stay on task and get things done faster.