There is one rule every college student needs to know to successfully manage his or her time.
It’s called Parkinson’s Law, and it’s responsible for a vast majority of the time wasted on college campuses.
The famous law, written by Cyril Northcote Parkinson in The Economist in 1955, states: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
In other words, if a student gives themselves four days to complete an assignment, it will likely take all four days, even if it should be able to completed in an hour.
That seems a little unreasonable. Yet, even the very best of us have procrastinated on a huge assignment at least once.
When huge papers are due in four hours, students often find it gets miraculously easier to focus and get work done quickly. That’s because the time available for completion decreased.
If students gave themselves a week to write that same paper, it would probably take them the whole week.
But if they allow themselves to become distracted, take frequent breaks and obsess about minute details that aren’t important, the work time is expanded with these unnecessary things.
It would seem as though Parkinson’s Law advocates us to save our work until the last minute so we do it more efficiently. This, of course, is not ideal for several reasons.
All-nighters are inconvenient and hard on the body. Plus, waiting until the last minute doesn’t give us a buffer in case something unexpected happens.
The easiest way to use Parkinson’s Law as an advantage is by creating personal deadlines that are scheduled earlier than the real one.
This way, students can maximize their focus if they are in a time crunch, but they won’t be in a jam if an unexpected emergency pops up.
According to Wendy Combs’ article, “Don’t Let Deadlines Bite You!” for the University of Texas at Austin, “Your personal deadline should prevent you from waiting until the last minute, and it will also give you some buffer time to ensure that your work is on time.”
Another way to combat Parkinson’s Law is to set a clear schedule for your work time. Work only “expands” if you let it. If students sit down and study will all distractions removed (e.g. Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter), they can be much more efficient.
According to John Gardner’s book, “Your College Experience: Strategies for Success,” students should set realistic time lines for work and stick to them. “Assess how long it takes to read a chapter in different types of textbooks, and how long it takes you to review your notes from different professors and plan your time accordingly.”
When all distractions are removed and work stripped down to its bare elements, it is surprising how little time it takes.
But we know how dangerous it can be to allow too little time to complete our work, but Parkinson’s Law shows us that allowing too much time can be just as dangerous.
Reach the columnist at emily.muller@asu.edu
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