Reclaim Your Time: Understanding Parkinson’s Law

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As a business owner, do you frequently become frustrated from feeling there just aren’t enough hours in the day to manage and run your business? Have you noticed a tendency for projects to use up all the time that is allotted for the project, even if it could have been completed in half the time? Whether it’s as simple as running a report for your accountant or embarking on a new project for a client, how long it will take you to do it depends on how much time you have.

That tendency for work to expand is the meaning behind Parkinson’s Law. Parkinson’s Law is the old adage that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion. It suggests that when given a task, we think of how much time is available to complete the task instead of how much time we actually need. The term was first coined by Cyril Northcote Parkinson in a humorous essay he wrote for “The Economist” in 1955.

Let’s suggest you give yourself a week to complete a two-hour task, then the task will increase in complexity and become more daunting – filling that extra time with more work, tension, and stress.  Companies with many employees can see how this can impact your teams that adjust their pace to the work available. If there is less work, they will work more slowly -either because they don’t have the pressure to perform, or because they are putting too much emphasis on the details in the initial phase of performing a task. However, business owners need to keep a close eye on this in your business, as it can sabotage efficiency and growth.


Aside from tasks and projects becoming increasingly complex, procrastination is another component to Parkinson’s Law. Knowing that we have a set amount of time to do something can encourage the task being left to the very last minute – and our delays in getting started mean the time required for that task expands further.

So, how can business owners truly work smarter, not harder? The key thing to remember when accounting for Parkinson’s Law is that when choosing how much time or other resources to dedicate to a task, you need to balance the right amount of time needed while not sacrificing quality over time saved.

Here are some ideas that are worth exploring and then measuring their effects on your productivity:

Prioritize your tasks

You might have an enormous to-do list, with many items and clear deadlines. Start the productive process off by identifying what are your most important tasks. Establish priorities as to what is urgent, or what is really important to yourself or your team at the time. Break these tasks into smaller more digestible tasks that can be managed effectively and set moderate deadlines for each. This way you are setting yourself up for success to achieve realistic tasks with achievable deadlines. 

Work faster, not harder
Parkinson’s Law reminds us that you can combine reasonable time and work estimates with a little optimism, and aim for getting deadlines just right. You might think overestimating timelines gives you the leeway you need if something out of our control derails the project or time needed, but it could end up wasting resources without adding quality to your end product.

Set time limits

To account for Parkinson’s Law, before scheduling a task or getting started on it, you should first determine and allocate how much time it should realistically take to complete it, without compromising performance. Try setting artificial deadlines, which limit either the amount of time that can be dedicated to the task or the point in time by which this task should be completed such as by next Friday or the end of October. Identify the few critical tasks that contribute most to income and schedule them with short and clear deadlines.  Use Parkinson’s Law as a framework when organizing your weekly calendar and defend your time by sticking to a productive schedule using the time limits you set for yourself.

Avoid distractions
There are so many time-wasting activities business owners need to be aware of. I recently read that CEOs spend 72 percent of their time in meetings and 24 percent of their time reading emails and social feeds.  When implementing Parkinson’s Law, consider these time drainers.  Sure, we all need to attend meetings and read our emails, but be very protective of your time doing each.  By avoiding distractions, we can eliminate waste and frustration and create a working environment of engagement and productivity.

Communicate realistic targets
This important step helps leaders define parameters that specific projects need to fit within, which is a surefire way to catch work expansion as it’s happening, rather than after it’s already sabotaged your timeline. During your project kickoff, you and your staff should agree upfront about what is in and out of the scope for the project.  For example, let’s say you are rebranding your website that absolutely needs to be finished and launched before the first day of a major convention.  Meeting that target deadline means that no new features and out of the initial scope functionality should be thrown in at the last minute.  Communicate all expectations and project scope upfront as a team.

Protect your time

Time is a precious commodity and as a business owner, chances are you’re constantly racing against the clock.  See how you can use Parkinson’s Law to increase your productivity, employee engagement and overall happiness to get more done, quickly, while achieving goals. If you should need guidance on tackling those important tasks or a sounding board to discuss those difficult and sometimes sensitive decisions, AE Tucker Consulting is dedicated to helping business owners successfully pursue their goals in life and in business.  Schedule a consultation today!

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To SWOT or to SOAR?

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Weighing Which Analysis Works Best for Your Business
Evaluating your business is just as important as running one. Whether it be increasing or decreasing sales, employee turnover, customer engagement online, etc., the signs of a healthy business must always be monitored in order to keep up your space in the marketplace.

Better yet, you want to sustain that space— and thrive in it. That’s where the SWOT and SOAR analyses come in.

What is SWOT?

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The first two deal with the internal environment of a business while the latter two deal with the outside factors a business can face. The strengths and opportunities are known to be the positives a business can evaluate themselves on and the weaknesses and threats are those that harm a business in meeting their brand’s overall mission, vision and goals.

Strengths: What strengths of your business beat competitors?

Weaknesses: What parts of your business keep you from beating competitors or hinder profits?

Opportunities: What opportunities are out there to help grow your business?

Threats: What threats exist that can hurt your business?

Questions that can help build a SWOT analysis include:

  • What do we consider our assets?
  • How do we stand out as a business?
  • What keeps our business sustainable?
  • What has kept our customers loyal?
  • How do competing companies do better than us?
  • Do we have a high turnover rate of employees?
  • What industry trends are happening that the business can take advantage of?
  • Are we up to date on our competitors?
  • Do we have crisis communications plans prepared?

What is SOAR?

SOAR, on the other hand, is all about focusing on strengths and opportunities— and other positive, affirming values of a business. SOAR is about the Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations and Results of a business and its goals. With SOAR, a business takes a laser focused on analyzing what strengths can build their aspirations and what results can be achieved through certain opportunities.

Strengths: What have been your business’s greatest achievements?

Opportunities: What markets or target audiences can your business capitalize on?

Aspirations: What are your mission, vision and goals for the business?

Results: What is the best way to measure the results of your meeting the business’s mission, vision and goals?

Questions that can help build a SOAR analysis include:

  • What strengths does our business have and how can we expand upon them?
  • How can we use our strengths to achieve better results?
  • What makes the business unique?
  • What partnerships can we look into to help elevate our business in the community or market?
  • What do we want the business to be known for?
  • What is the industry we are in passionate about and how can we help contribute?
  • What are some ways we can track results?

Major Differences Between SWOT and SOAR

The major differences between SWOT and SOAR is that SWOT is about assessing and analyzing a business’s competitive edge in the market, while SOAR is all about enhancing the mission and future vision of a business as a whole.

Essential to note, most businesses have been using SWOT for decades now. It’s a household term for evaluating how a business is improving their performance, taking the time to monitor its present situation.

SOAR has recently been introduced and is gaining popularity especially with smaller businesses who are still developing their brand given that SOAR focuses primarily on the future. When you are a fairly small or young company, it’s more common that you want to build towards the long-term before you are able to have all the information you need to assess a present quarter’s results.  At AE Tucker Consulting, we highly encourage business owns to have that growth-mindset and to focus on those big hairy, audacious goals that is deliberately achieved through SOAR.

Another important difference to note is that SWOT is about assessing a business through the scope of its competition; the questions zero in on keeping the business in the best place possible at all times. SOAR, on the other hand, is less about competition and more about collaboration. Its questions allow a business and its teams think about how to work together and propel the business forward.

In this way, where SWOT is based on tactics, strategies and data, SOAR is all about being vision-oriented and focusing on a business’s teams’ unity to pave the path forward.

When to SWOT and When to SOAR

Each business should use SWOT and SOAR at different points in time. If you are a well-established business, it’s smart to perform routine SWOT analyses that help show what’s working and what isn’t. It’s especially important to perform a SWOT if new competitors have entered the business, you see your profits and sales have stagnated or are going down, or if you are seeing that employee culture is changing.

If you are a fairly new business, recently merged or were acquired by another business, are going to rebrand or want to boost employee morale, a SOAR analysis is your tool. You will be able to have teams work together to feel they have a stake in the future of the company and can clearly see where it’s going. Most importantly, SOAR emphasizes and manifests the future that the company wants— and therefore works on the building blocks so it gets there.

Ensuring the Analyses are Done Right

To ensure that each analysis within your business is done smoothly and effectively, it’s best to work with a trusted advisor or consultant— and that’s where AE Tucker Consulting comes in.

Whether you’d prefer a guide, consultant, advisor or part-time CFO, AE Tucker Consulting can work with owners and management of small to midsize privately held companies to help you develop and implement SWOT and SOAR analyses that get the job done.

Optimize your company value, your profits and your company culture— with our help, you’ll be SWOTting and SOARing through each quarter the way your business deserves!

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