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productivity
You complete tasks in the time you allocate, regardless of complexity.
Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
Observations in organizational management show that the perceived urgency of a task is dictated by the deadline set, rather than the intrinsic labor required. If you give yourself a week to write a report, you will use the week. If you halve the time, you will usually find a way to finish regardless.
Your timeline is a constraint you set, not a requirement of the task.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Parkinson, 1955, The Economist
- What the check found
- The law was indeed first published by C. Northcote Parkinson in The Economist on November 19, 1955, before being expanded into his 1957 book.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.