Why Every Task Takes Longer Than It Should (Parkinson's Law)

Why does every task take longer than it should? This video looks at Parkinson's Law, from C. Northcote Parkinson's 1955 essay in The Economist: work expands to fill the time available. We cover why work stretches, the planning fallacy (students in a 1994 study guessed about 34 days for their thesis and took about 55), the Sydney Opera House, and the law of triviality. Then three fixes: shrink the box with timeboxing and real deadlines, define done before you start, and use the outside view, plus when shrinking the box backfires. Sources: Parkinson, C. N. (1955, November 19). Parkinson's Law. The Economist. Buehler, R., Griffin, D. & Ross, M. (1994). Exploring the "planning fallacy": Why people underestimate their task completion times. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(3), 366-381. Kahneman, D. & Tversky, A. (1979). Intuitive prediction: Biases and corrective procedures. TIMS Studies in Management Science, 12, 313-327. Chapters 00:00 Hook 00:37 Where The Law Came From 01:24 Why Work Stretches 02:06 We Are Bad At Guessing Time 02:53 The Opera House 03:38 The Bike Shed Problem 04:20 My Forty Minute Clean 05:00 Fix One Shrink The Box 05:38 Fix Two Define Done 06:20 Fix Three Use The Outside View 07:02 When The Law Backfires 07:45 Your Smaller Box Slightly Better Daily: simple ideas from psychology and great books to get one percent better every day. #selfimprovement #habits #motivation #slightlybiased