What I’ve Learned In One Minute…

Hi Reader,

​I’ve been thinking a lot about Parkinson’s Law, what it can and can’t do and I wanted to share that with you today and what I took away about it from working in engineering for the past 9 months.

What Parkinson’s Law Can and Can’t Do

The older I get, the more I notice that the wisest people in the room are usually the ones who can tell you, pretty accurately, how long something is going to take. I think Parkinson’s Law has something to do with that.

Parkinson’s Law is the idea that a task will expand to fill whatever time you give it.

On the surface, that sounds useful. If you put yourself under a tighter deadline, you’ll get the thing done faster. It’s a well-known productivity principle and works impressively in many cases.

But not many people talk about what Parkinson’s Law can’t do.

It can’t measure how you’re feeling that day.

It can’t account for the person who hasn’t replied to the email you need before you can move forward.

It can’t measure the things that just happen in real life and remind you that you’re human.

It also can’t tell you whether you underestimated the task in the first place. If you’re going into something new, or you’re inexperienced with it, you almost certainly don’t have an accurate sense of how long it actually takes. That’s not inefficiency. That’s just not knowing yet.

And then there’s the quieter thing that the productivity world tends to forget.

Some things just take time.

The searching, the wondering, the sitting inside a problem, the creative thought that doesn’t arrive on a schedule. Parkinson’s Law tries to squeeze that out. But that patience is often exactly what makes an idea original, or considered, or genuinely yours.

I’m not saying abandon it entirely.

But if you gave something two hours and it took four, it’s worth asking whether you were slow, or whether you just took the time to actually understand what you were doing.

TL;DR

Parkinson's Law says your work expands to fill the time you give it. Tighten the deadline, get it done faster. That works, sometimes. But it can't account for the unexpected, for inexperience, or for the kind of thinking that just needs time to happen. If something took longer than you planned, it's worth asking whether you were slow or whether you just took the time to actually do it properly.

WITH INTENTION

I do a podcast about learning how to be intentional in everyday life, here's what this week's episode is about:

What actually happens when you stop playing it safe. Joining a Hyrox team of seasoned athletes when I had no business being there. Parkinson's Law and its flaws, the job versus career mindset and why your body and mind are almost never on the same page.

Listen to it on Spotify​

QUICK HACKS

PUT SALT IN YOUR COFFEE

Trust me. If you get tired of the bitter taste of coffee and always need tonnes of milk and sugar in your coffee, try adding adding a small pinch of salt to your coffee. Salt is a flavour enhancer, it brings out the coffee taste more while killing the bitterness of the coffee. I've been trying this for the past couple weeks and it's been a life changer.

COOK YOUR CHICKEN AT 160°C

Instead of Air frying your chicken at 200°C and having flavoured charcoal for dinner, try air frying your chicken at 160°C but for longer. The lower temperature allows the chicken to cook more evenly better and retain juiciness. The time is all relative, but I've seen that 160°C for 25-30 minutes for chicken thighs, flipping halfway at 15min works really well for me.

WINS & LESSONS

Win:

Thank you so much for the podcast and your reception of it. I am so blessed for the opportunity to create, learn and make mistakes along the way.

Lesson:

I was wrong about discipline. It is actually something you just need to have in everyday life. it was something I had but then chose to let go of because I felt as it wasn’t needed in life to achieve the things you set out for yourself. But turns out, for me, it actually is but not in the way you think. Sharing more with time to come.

QUESTION FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

Is there something you've been rushing that actually just needs more time?

Alright that's it from me.

In a bit,

Motheo