A Realistic Guide to Time Management - Todoist
Create time blocks: Starting from the first thing in the morning, add time blocks dedicated to specific tasks ranging from 15 minutes to two hours. . For ...
Parkinson’s Law
If you’re unsure of the time allowance you should allocate to each of your priorities, simply choose an amount of time that you think you can realistically maintain. <anchor>Parkinson’s Law</anchor> states that the amount of work expands to fit the amount of time you give it. By applying time constraints and sticking to them, we might not accomplish everything we intended, but we can trade perfection for speed and complete more than we originally imagined.
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## Contents

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- [1First meaning](#First_meaning)Toggle First meaning subsection  - [1.1Generalization](#Generalization)
- [2Second meaning](#Second_meaning)Toggle Second meaning subsection  - [2.1Formula](#Formula)
- [3Related efficiency](#Related_efficiency)
- [4See also](#See_also)
- [5References](#References)
- [6Further reading](#Further_reading)
- [7External links](#External_links)

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# Parkinson's law

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adage that work expands to fill its available time

Not to be confused with [Parkinson's law of triviality](/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law_of_triviality "Parkinson's law of triviality").

**Parkinson's law** can refer to either of two observations, published in 1955 by the naval historian [C. Northcote Parkinson](/wiki/C._Northcote_Parkinson "C. Northcote Parkinson") as an essay in _[The Economist](/wiki/The_Economist "The Economist")_:[\[1\]](#cite_note-original-1)

- "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion",
- the number of workers within [public administration](/wiki/Public_administration "Public administration"), [bureaucracy](/wiki/Bureaucracy "Bureaucracy") or [officialdom](/wiki/Officialdom "Officialdom") tends to grow, regardless of the amount of work to be done. This was attributed mainly to two factors: that officials want [subordinates](/wiki/Hierarchy "Hierarchy"), not rivals, and that officials make work for each other.

The first paragraph of the essay mentioned the first meaning above as a "commonplace observation", and the rest of the essay was devoted to the latter observation, terming it "Parkinson's Law".

## First meaning

\[ [edit](/w/index.php?title=Parkinson%27s_law&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: First meaning")\]

The first-referenced meaning of the law – "Work expands to fill the available time" – has sprouted several [corollaries](/wiki/Corollary "Corollary"), the best known being the Stock-Sanford corollary to Parkinson's law:

> If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute to do.[\[2\]](#cite_note-2)

Other corollaries include Horstman's corollary to Parkinson's law, coined by Mark Horstman of website manager-tools.com:[\[3\]](#cite_note-3)

> Work contracts to fit in the time we give it.[\[4\]](#cite_note-4)

the Asimov corollary to Parkinson's law:

> In ten hours a day you have time to fall twice as far behind your commitments as in five hours a day.[\[5\]](#cite_note-5)

as well as corollaries relating to [computers](/wiki/Computer "Computer"), such as:

> Data expands to fill the space available for storage.[\[6\]](#cite_note-6)

### Generalization

\[ [edit](/w/index.php?title=Parkinson%27s_law&action=edit&section=2 "Edit section: Generalization")\]

[![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/50px-Question_book-new.svg.png)](/wiki/File:Question_book-new.svg)

This section **does not [cite](/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources "Wikipedia:Citing sources") any [sources](/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability "Wikipedia:Verifiability")**. Please help [improve this section](/wiki/Special:EditPage/Parkinson%27s_law "Special:EditPage/Parkinson's law") by [adding citations to reliable sources](/wiki/Help:Referencing_for_beginners "Help:Referencing for beginners"). Unsourced material may be challenged and [removed](/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability#Burden_of_evidence "Wikipedia:Verifiability")._(January 2024)__([Learn how and when to remove this message](/wiki/Help:Maintenance_template_removal "Help:Maintenance template removal"))_

The law can be generalized further as:

> The demand upon a resource tends to expand to match the supply of the resource (If the price is zero).

An extension is often added:

> The reverse is not true.

This generalization has come to resemble what some economists regard as the [law of demand](/wiki/Law_of_demand "Law of demand") – namely, the lower the price of a service or commodity, the greater the quantity demanded. This is also referred to as [induced demand](/wiki/Induced_demand "Induced demand").

## Second meaning

\[ [edit](/w/index.php?title=Parkinson%27s_law&action=edit&section=3 "Edit section: Second meaning")\]

This was the main focus of the essay by [Cyril Northcote Parkinson](/wiki/C._Northcote_Parkinson "C. Northcote Parkinson"), published in _[The Economist](/wiki/The_Economist "The Economist")_ in 1955,[\[1\]](#cite_note-original-1)[\[7\]](#cite_note-7) and reprinted with other similar essays in the successful 1958 book _Parkinson's Law: The Pursuit of Progress_.[\[8\]](#cite_note-8) The book was translated into many languages. It was highly popular in the Soviet Union and its sphere of influence.[\[9\]](#cite_note-9) In 1986, [Alessandro Natta](/wiki/Alessandro_Natta "Alessandro Natta") complained about the swelling bureaucracy in Italy. [Mikhail Gorbachev](/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev "Mikhail Gorbachev") responded that "Parkinson's law works everywhere."[\[10\]](#cite_note-10)

Parkinson derived the dictum from his extensive experience in the [British Civil Service](/wiki/British_Civil_Service "British Civil Service"). He gave, as examples, the growth in the size of the British [Admiralty](/wiki/Admiralty_(United_Kingdom) "Admiralty (United Kingdom)") and [Colonial Office](/wiki/Colonial_Office "Colonial Office") even though the numbers of their ships and colonies were declining.

Much of the essay is dedicated to a summary of purportedly scientific observations supporting the law, such as the increase in the number of employees at the [Colonial Office](/wiki/Colonial_Office "Colonial Office") while the [British Empire](/wiki/British_Empire "British Empire") declined (he showed that it had its greatest number of staff when it was folded into the [Foreign Office](/wiki/Foreign_Office "Foreign Office") due to a lack of colonies to administer). He explained this growth using two forces: (1) "An official wants to multiply subordinates, not rivals", and (2) "Officials make work for each other." He noted that the number employed in a [bureaucracy](/wiki/Bureaucracy "Bureaucracy") rose by 5–7% per year "irrespective of any variation in the amount of work (if any) to be done".

### Formula

\[ [edit](/w/index.php?title=Parkinson%27s_law&action=edit&section=4 "Edit section: Formula")\]

Parkinson presented the growth as a mathematical equation describing the rate at which [bureaucracies](/wiki/Bureaucracy "Bureaucracy") expand over time, with the formula x=(2km+P)/n{\\displaystyle x=(2k^{m}+P)/n}![{\displaystyle x=(2k^{m}+P)/n}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/4e62fe572127fda23f4ea4c78dfbf7512fe5a345), in which _k_ was the number of officials wanting subordinates, _m_ was the hours they spent writing [minutes](/wiki/Minutes "Minutes") to each other.

Observing that the promotion of employees necessitated the hiring of subordinates, and that time used answering minutes requires more work; Parkinson states: "In any public administrative department not actually at war the staff increase may be expected to follow this formula" (for a given year) [\[1\]](#cite_note-original-1)

x=2km+Pn{\\displaystyle x={\\frac {2k^{m}+P}{n}}}![{\displaystyle x={\frac {2k^{m}+P}{n}}}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/5f2ab9033e0db6e852241f0ac1f489bca00775df)

- _x_ – number of new employees to be hired annually
- _k_ – number of employees who want to be promoted by hiring new employees
- _m_ – number of working hours per person for the preparation of internal memoranda (micropolitics)
- _P_ – difference: age at hiring − age at retirement
- _n_ – number of administrative files actually completed

## Related efficiency

\[ [edit](/w/index.php?title=Parkinson%27s_law&action=edit&section=5 "Edit section: Related efficiency")\]

In a different essay included in the book, Parkinson proposed a rule about the efficiency of administrative councils. He defined a "coefficient of inefficiency" with the number of members as the main determining variable. This is a semi-humorous attempt to define the size at which a committee or other decision-making body becomes completely inefficient.

In _Parkinson's Law: The Pursuit of Progress_, London: John Murray, 1958 a chapter is devoted to the basic question of what he called _comitology_: how committees, government cabinets, and other such bodies are created and eventually grow irrelevant (or are initially designed as such). (The word [comitology](/wiki/Comitology "Comitology") has recently been independently invented by the European Union for a different non-humorous meaning.)[\[11\]](#cite_note-OED-11)[\[12\]](#cite_note-misuse-12)

Empirical evidence is drawn from historical and contemporary government cabinets. Most often, the minimal size of a state's most powerful and prestigious body is five members. From English history, Parkinson notes a number of bodies that lost power as they grew:

- The first cabinet was the Council of the Crown, now the [House of Lords](/wiki/House_of_Lords "House of Lords"), which grew from an unknown number to 29, to 50 before 1600, by which time it had lost much of its power.
- A new body was appointed in 1257, the "Lords of the King's Council", numbering fewer than 10. The body grew, and ceased to meet when it had 172 members.
- The third incarnation was the [Privy Council](/wiki/Privy_Council_of_the_United_Kingdom "Privy Council of the United Kingdom"), initially also numbering fewer than 10 members, rising to 47 in 1679.
- In 1715, the Privy Council lost power to the Cabinet Council with eight members, rising to 20 by 1725.
- Around 1740, the Cabinet Council was superseded by an inner group, called the [Cabinet](/wiki/Cabinet_of_the_United_Kingdom "Cabinet of the United Kingdom"), initially with five members. At the time of Parkinson's study (the 1950s), the Cabinet was still the official governing body. Parkinson observed that, from 1939 on, there was an effort to save the Cabinet as an institution. The membership had been fluctuating from a high of 23 members in 1939, down to 18 in 1954.

A detailed mathematical expression is proposed by Parkinson for the coefficient of inefficiency, featuring many possible influences. In 2008, an attempt was made to empirically verify the proposed model.[\[13\]](#cite_note-13) Parkinson's conjecture that membership exceeding a number "between 19.9 and 22.4" makes a committee manifestly inefficient seems well justified by the evidence proposed\[ _[citation needed](/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed "Wikipedia:Citation needed")_\]. Less certain is the optimal number of members, which must lie between three (a logical minimum) and 20. (Within a group of 20, [individual discussions](/wiki/Political_faction "Political faction") may occur, [diluting the power of the leader](/wiki/Splinter_group "Splinter group").) That it may be eight seems arguable but is not supported by observation: no contemporary government in Parkinson's data set had eight members, and only king [Charles I of England](/wiki/Charles_I_of_England "Charles I of England") had a Committee of State of that size.

## See also

\[ [edit](/w/index.php?title=Parkinson%27s_law&action=edit&section=6 "Edit section: See also")\]

- [Dilbert principle](/wiki/Dilbert_principle "Dilbert principle")
- [Gustafson's law](/wiki/Gustafson%27s_law "Gustafson's law")
- [Hofstadter's law](/wiki/Hofstadter%27s_law "Hofstadter's law")
- [Lewis–Mogridge position](/wiki/Lewis%E2%80%93Mogridge_position "Lewis–Mogridge position")
- [Induced demand](/wiki/Induced_demand "Induced demand")
- [Iron triangle](/wiki/Iron_triangle_(US_politics) "Iron triangle (US politics)")
- [Jevons paradox](/wiki/Jevons_paradox "Jevons paradox")
- [Law of triviality](/wiki/Law_of_triviality "Law of triviality")
- [List of eponymous laws](/wiki/List_of_eponymous_laws "List of eponymous laws")
- [Peter principle](/wiki/Peter_principle "Peter principle")
- [Planning fallacy](/wiki/Planning_fallacy "Planning fallacy")
- [Reference class forecasting](/wiki/Reference_class_forecasting "Reference class forecasting")
- [SnackWell effect](/wiki/SnackWell_effect "SnackWell effect")
- [Student syndrome](/wiki/Student_syndrome "Student syndrome")
- [Time management](/wiki/Time_management "Time management")
- [Zawinski's Law](/wiki/Zawinski%27s_Law "Zawinski's Law")

## References

\[ [edit](/w/index.php?title=Parkinson%27s_law&action=edit&section=7 "Edit section: References")\]

01. ^ [_**a**_](#cite_ref-original_1-0) [_**b**_](#cite_ref-original_1-1) [_**c**_](#cite_ref-original_1-2)Parkinson, Cyril Northcote (19 November 1955). ["Parkinson's Law"](http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/management/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14116121). _The Economist_. London.
02. **[^](#cite_ref-2)**Pannett, Alan Shalini Sequeira; Dines, Andrew; Day, Andrew (2013). [_Key Skills for Professionals: How to Succeed in Professional Services_](https://books.google.com/books?id=QhBMlKelYloC&pg=PA65). [Kogan Page](/wiki/Kogan_Page "Kogan Page"). p. 65. [ISBN](/wiki/ISBN_(identifier) "ISBN (identifier)") [978-0-7494-6877-4](/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7494-6877-4 "Special:BookSources/978-0-7494-6877-4").
03. **[^](#cite_ref-3)**Alexander Clark; Bailey Sousa (12 March 2018). _How to Be a Happy Academic: A Guide to Being Effective in Research, Writing_. SAGE. [ISBN](/wiki/ISBN_(identifier) "ISBN (identifier)") [978-1-5264-4904-7](/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-5264-4904-7 "Special:BookSources/978-1-5264-4904-7").
04. **[^](#cite_ref-4)**Barber, Cam. ["How to write a speech in 15 minutes"](http://vividmethod.com/how-to-write-a-speech-in-15-minutes/). _Vivid method_. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
05. **[^](#cite_ref-5)**Isaac Asimov, in [Nightfall and Other Stories](/wiki/Nightfall_and_Other_Stories "Nightfall and Other Stories"), introductory material to " [The Machine That Won the War](/wiki/The_Machine_That_Won_the_War_(short_story) "The Machine That Won the War (short story)")"
06. **[^](#cite_ref-6)**Jansen, Peter (2008). _IT-Service-Management Volgens ITIL_. Derde Editie. [Pearson Education](/wiki/Pearson_Education "Pearson Education"). p. 179. [ISBN](/wiki/ISBN_(identifier) "ISBN (identifier)") [978-90-430-1323-9](/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-90-430-1323-9 "Special:BookSources/978-90-430-1323-9").
07. **[^](#cite_ref-7)**Fowler, Elizabeth M (5 May 1957). ["It's a 'Law' now: Payrolls grow"](http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70616FF3D55137A93C7A9178ED85F438585F9). _The New York Times_.
08. **[^](#cite_ref-8)**Parkinson, C. Northcote (1958). _Parkinson's Law: The Pursuit of Progress_ (1st ed.). London: John Murray General Publishing Division. [ISBN](/wiki/ISBN_(identifier) "ISBN (identifier)") [978-0719510496](/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0719510496 "Special:BookSources/978-0719510496").
09. **[^](#cite_ref-9)**Brown, Archie (2009). [_The Rise and Fall of Communism_](https://archive.org/details/risefallofcommun00brow). New York: Ecco. p. [589](https://archive.org/details/risefallofcommun00brow/page/589). [ISBN](/wiki/ISBN_(identifier) "ISBN (identifier)") [978-0-06-113879-9](/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-06-113879-9 "Special:BookSources/978-0-06-113879-9").
10. **[^](#cite_ref-10)**[O'Sullivan, John](/wiki/John_O%27Sullivan_(columnist) "John O'Sullivan (columnist)") (June 2008). "Margaret Thatcher: A Legacy of Freedom". _Imprimis_. **37** (6). [Hillsdale College](/wiki/Hillsdale_College "Hillsdale College"): 6.
11. **[^](#cite_ref-OED_11-0)**["comitology"](https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?q=comitology). _[Oxford English Dictionary](/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary "Oxford English Dictionary")_ (Online ed.). [Oxford University Press](/wiki/Oxford_University_Press "Oxford University Press").(Subscription or [participating institution membership](https://www.oed.com/public/login/loggingin#withyourlibrary) required.)
12. **[^](#cite_ref-misuse_12-0)**[A Brief List of Misused English Terms in EU Publications](https://web.archive.org/web/20130810041828/http://ec.europa.eu/translation/english/guidelines/documents/misused_english_terminology_eu_publications_en.pdf)(PDF) (Report). 18 June 2013. Archived from [the original](http://ec.europa.eu/translation/english/guidelines/documents/misused_english_terminology_eu_publications_en.pdf)(PDF) on 10 August 2013.
13. **[^](#cite_ref-13)**Klimek, Peter; Hanel, Rudolf; [Thurner, Stefan](/wiki/Stefan_Thurner "Stefan Thurner") (14 April 2008), "To how many politicians should government be left?", _Physica A_, **388** (18): 3939–3947, [arXiv](/wiki/ArXiv_(identifier) "ArXiv (identifier)"):[0804.2202](https://arxiv.org/abs/0804.2202), [Bibcode](/wiki/Bibcode_(identifier) "Bibcode (identifier)"): [2009PhyA..388.3939K](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009PhyA..388.3939K), [doi](/wiki/Doi_(identifier) "Doi (identifier)"): [10.1016/j.physa.2009.06.012](https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.physa.2009.06.012), [S2CID](/wiki/S2CID_(identifier) "S2CID (identifier)") [12097887](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:12097887), It is often argued – as now e.g. in the discussion of the future size of the European Commission – that decision making bodies of a size beyond 20 become strongly inefficient. We report empirical evidence that the performance of national governments declines with increasing membership and undergoes a qualitative change in behavior at a particular group size. We use recent UNDP, World Bank and CIA data on overall government efficacy, i.e. stability, the quality of policy formulation as well as human development indices of individual countries and relate it to the country's cabinet size. We are able to understand our findings through a simple physical model of opinion dynamics in groups..

## Further reading

\[ [edit](/w/index.php?title=Parkinson%27s_law&action=edit&section=8 "Edit section: Further reading")\]

- Parkinson, Cyril Northcote (1958). _Parkinson's Law, or The Pursuit of Progress_. London: John Murray.
- Grunwald, Beverly (17 November 1968). "Mrs. Parkinson's Law". _The New York Times Book Review_. p. 5.
- [Planet Money](/wiki/Planet_Money "Planet Money") [Episode 877: "The Laws Of The Office"](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/11/19/669395064/episode-877-the-laws-of-the-office), 21 November 2018, NPR

## External links

\[ [edit](/w/index.php?title=Parkinson%27s_law&action=edit&section=9 "Edit section: External links")\]

- Parkinson, Cyril Northcote (19 November 1955), ["Parkinson's Law"](http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/management/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14116121), _The Economist_.
- ——— (November 1955), ["Parkinson's Law"](http://www.berglas.org/Articles/parkinsons_law.pdf)(PDF), _The Economist_, Berglas.
- [C. Northcote Parkinson, Parkinson's Law – extract](http://www.panarchy.org/parkinson/parkinsonlaw.html) (1958)

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