A Quote by C. Northcote Parkinson
Parkinson's First Law: Work expands to fill the time available.
Related Quotes
Unproductive worry - like Parkinson's proverbial law - tends to expand to fill the time available.
Conran's Law of Housework - it expands to fill the time available plus half an hour.
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
The nice thing about standards is, there are so many to choose from. Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. General recognition of this fact is shown in the proverbial phrase "It is the busiest man who has time to spare."
For example: (1) As if governed by Newton's First Law of Motion, an institution will resist any change in its current direction; (2) Just as work expands to fill available time, corporate projects or acquisitions will materialize to soak up available funds; (3) Any business craving of the leader, however foolish, will be quickly supported by detailed rate-of-return and strategic studies prepared by his troops; and (4) The behavior of peer companies, whether they are expanding, acquiring, setting executive compensation or whatever, will be mindlessly imitated.
Remember the law of the home: Junk expands to fill the space available, plus one room.
The volume of paper expands to fill the available briefcases.
Too often I find that the volume of paper expands to fill the available briefcases.
Almost instantly [after my announcement of Parkinson's], I saw the first couple of days the coverage was about, you know, "Fox's Parkinson's, blah, blah, blah." Then, two days after that, I saw the coverage turn. It started to become, "Can young people get Parkinson's?" All of a sudden, the conversation turned to become about that. And that was one of the first eye-opening things.
There are two synergistic approaches for increasing productivity that are inversions of each other:
1. Limit tasks to the important to shorten work time (80/20).
2. Shorten work time to limit tasks to the important (Parkinson's Law).
The best solution is to use both together: Identify the few critical tasks that contribute most to income and schedule them with very short and clear deadlines.
Parkinson's Fourth Law: The number of people in any working group tends to increase regardless of the amount of work to be done.
Kids take up all available time - it's the basic law of parenthood. No matter how much time you give them, whether you work from eight to eight or are around the house all the time, you'll still feel you haven't been there enough for them.
Software is a gas; it expands to fill its container.
I filled in for Papa Roach because we weren't doing much. Unwritten Law had a few more shows booked, but I got the call to fill in again at the end of the year. I was like, "I have to make myself available to these guys."
Jihad expands Islam's domain by any means available.
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