The Productivity Hack That Has Saved Us Over 100 Hours as Working Moms

Why does it take a week to clean the playroom one day and 20 minutes to clean the same playroom another?

How come we stare at the blinking cursor on an email for an hour some days but I can write the very same email in 10 minutes the following week?

Have you ever been on a call, not only that could have for sure been an email, but it should’ve been no longer than 6 minutes and here we are 24 minutes later…?

It all boils down to a concept called Parkinson’s Law.

Parkinson’s Law is the idea that work will always expand to the amount of time that you give it.

If you’re thinking, “wow, yeah that checks out…”

It should.

We’re conditioned to function this way from the very beginning. Nobody got to head home once they finished their algebra test. Traditional schooling starts and ends at very specific time.

You’ve got all day to get what you need to done. So we’ve trained ourselves to… make it take all day. 

I can’t help but believe that if corporate offices really understood how people and productivity work, they’d scrap the 9-5. When the big wigs ask for my opinion on workplace structure, I’ll be ready.

Cyril Northcote Parkinson, a British historian and author, is credited for giving a name to our innate tendency to take our sweet time when we have it available.

And so was born Parkinson’s Law.

The wildest part is… no time? No problem. You’ll almost always get it done anyways.

More time = time wasted

Less time = an increase in productivity

Are you for real? Sounds like a billboard for a working mom to me. 

Who else can get a week’s worth of work done in a 2-hour nap time?

Parkinson’s Law is part of the reason why Spanx CEO and one of our all-time favorites, Sara Blakely, has gone on record saying that everyone should hire mothers!

They have the least amount of time and so they waste the least amount of time. 

Rest assured though, you don’t have to have toddlers hanging onto your legs while you cook dinner to take advantage of Parkinson’s Law and start getting more done.

Knowing the principle and how human nature works can make you a productivity machine.

Creating a spreadsheet can take 2 weeks or 2 hours…

Cleaning the kitchen can take an entire Saturday or a 20 minute countdown timer on your phone…

Work will always expand to the amount of time that you give it. 

(Except for editing a reel which will take me forever no matter what time management strategies I implement amen)

*~presses start on the iPhone timer~*

Xo, The Salesgirls