August 22nd, 2021
3 minute read
Parkinson's law is the adage that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion". Remember the days when you somehow managed to complete 80% of your assignment the night before? It really is amazing how much work we can get done when the pressure is pumped to 99.
One way you can make this work out for you is to use this law intentionally. If you have 4 weeks to complete a project at work, try and do it in 2 and see how much quality you lose, Chances are, not much, and you could always use the remaining time to amend the work.
The Pareto principle states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes. This concept is depicted perfectly by Tim Ferris's book: The 4 Hour Work Week. Tim uses his former business as an example and dives deeper on how this law increased his revenue and his happiness. He figured out that 80% of his customer complaints and issues came from only 20% of his clients. So naturally, he sent a strongly worded voicemail and cut them off. His complaints and issues disappeared and it also allowed him to focus on his other clients. In addition to this, Tim also realised that only 20% of his products or services accounted for 80% of his profit. Therefore, If you comb through your own life or business using this method, you'll also have similar realisations and save yourself money and time.
Do you really know where your time is spent? No seriously, do you? Because I didn't, until I used this one method.
We have all heard of the famous saying "If you fail to plan , you plan to fail". Its a simple enough phrase yet we all fail to take heed of the crucial message. We spend so much time on our phones, in our beds, on the couch, its crippling. Its high time we take control of our time and liberate ourselves.
Google calendar is a simple tool I use to block out chunks of time for different aspects of my life, gym, work & reminders. Every Sunday , spend 30 minutes to plan out the coming week as well as write down the potential blockers and distractions. I usually pick 1-3 tasks I need to get done on a given day. I got this from Make Time, a book written by 2 former Google developers. Now, these tasks may not necessarily be work related, they just need to be important to you.
Now that you're armed with an arsenal of productivity tips, take on your week with a new sense of purpose and drive. And once again, thank you for reading my post!