Diarized

Glossary

Parkinson's law

Parkinson's law is the observation that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. It was written by Cyril Northcote Parkinson in The Economist in 1955, as satire about the British civil service rather than as productivity advice.

Where it goes wrong

It is quoted as licence to cut every estimate, which produces a calendar full of slots nothing fits into. The law describes work with no natural end, like tidying or a report that can always be improved. It says nothing useful about work that takes as long as it takes.

Diarized schedules the work you already keep in a to-do app into the calendar you already use, and shows you why every block landed where it did.

Related terms

Time blocking Timeboxing The Pomodoro Technique Auto-scheduling Deep work Context switching