Parkinson's Law: The Paradox of Plenty
managerWork expands to fill the resources available. The more you make, the more you spend. Stuff accumulates to fill the available storage space. And if you want something done, give it to a busy person.
- Why
- Mitigation in General
- Mitigating at work
- Mitigating at the bank
- Mitigating on vacation
- Mitigating in the closet
- Funny other variants
Why
This phenomenon relates to both the long tail and the Pareto principle, which states that you get 80% of the value from 20% of the work. Without resource constraints (or a deliberate focus on opportunity costs), you’ll continue working long past the point of diminishing returns. Several related concepts help explain this behavior: the sunk cost fallacy, bike shedding, the IKEA effect, and loss aversion.
Relation to Procrastination
Procrastination and Parkinson’s Law are two sides of the same coin. While Parkinson’s Law describes how work expands to fill available time, procrastination shows how we often delay starting until only the minimum time remains. This creates an artificial constraint that forces efficiency.
Relation to the Dip
The Dip, as described by Seth Godin, is the long slog between starting something and mastering it. Parkinson’s Law can either help or hinder your journey through the dip—with unlimited resources, you might never push through to mastery, but with too few resources, you might quit before reaching it.
Mitigation in General
Constraints force us to focus on what truly matters. Here are three key strategies for applying constraints effectively:
Decide ahead of time the stopping criteria
Setting clear success criteria before starting prevents scope creep and endless refinement. This applies whether you’re writing code, cleaning your house, or working on any project.
Set a budget first
Establishing resource constraints—whether time, money, or people—forces creativity and efficiency. This is why hackathons and time-boxed sprints often produce impressive results.
Focus on trade-offs
Every yes is a no to something else. Making trade-offs explicit helps combat Parkinson’s Law by forcing conscious resource allocation.
Mitigating at work
Amazon’s Leadership Principle - Frugality
Frugality is perhaps Amazon’s most misunderstood Leadership Principle. While many people think it’s about saving $100 by buying a door desk (which, ironically, ends up being more expensive since custom-cut desks aren’t reusable), it’s actually about accomplishing with five people what you thought would require eight.
This constraint forces you to focus solely on what matters most—the highest-impact work.
Lean Startup
The Lean Startup methodology directly addresses Parkinson’s Law in business contexts. By enforcing constraints through rapid iteration cycles and validated learning, it prevents teams from over-investing in unproven ideas.
Minimum Viable Products
MVPs are a practical application of constraining resources to force efficiency. By limiting scope to only what’s necessary to test core assumptions, teams avoid the waste that Parkinson’s Law would otherwise encourage.
There is no truth in the building
Getting real feedback from customers is the only way to know if you’re building the right thing. Without this constraint, teams can spend infinite time perfecting features nobody wants.
Ship before you are ready
Perfect is the enemy of done. When resources are unlimited, the temptation to polish endlessly prevents shipping. Setting a firm shipping deadline creates the constraint needed to focus on what truly matters.
Day 2 culture
Day 2 happens when success removes constraints, allowing Parkinson’s Law to take hold. Maintaining Day 1 culture requires artificially maintaining constraints even when resources are abundant.
Mitigating at the bank
This applies to money
Pay yourself first
The most effective way to combat financial Parkinson’s Law is to remove money from your available resources before you can spend it. This creates artificial scarcity that prevents lifestyle inflation.
Focus on your expenses, not on your income
Income growth often leads to lifestyle inflation due to Parkinson’s Law. By focusing on controlling expenses instead, you can break this cycle and build wealth regardless of income level.
Focus on your recurring expenses, not on capital expenses
Recurring expenses are particularly susceptible to Parkinson’s Law because they compound over time. One-time purchases have a limited impact, but recurring costs expand to consume all available resources if left unchecked.
Mitigating on vacation
This applies during time off
When planning vacation time, Parkinson’s Law suggests that activities will expand to fill all available time. Setting constraints through careful planning helps ensure you make the most of your time off without feeling overwhelmed.
Mitigating in the closet
The art of tidying up
When cleaning your closet, removing items one at a time leads to Zeno’s paradox—you’ll keep removing half of what remains but never reach the end. Instead, the effective approach is to empty your closet completely and only return the items you truly need. This method forces you to make intentional decisions about each item rather than falling into the trap of endless incremental decluttering.
Funny other variants
From Wikipedia
- Work complicates to fill the available time.
- Work contracts to fit in the time we give it.
- Data expands to fill the space available for storage.
- In ten hours a day, you have time to fall twice as far behind your commitments as in five hours a day.
- If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute to do.