Have you heard of Parkinson's Law?

Are you just busy being busy?

If you find that you are so busy all the time but you are still not getting anywhere, you could be suffering from Parkinson's Law.

It is prevalent in many aspects of our lives, and it is something that many small business owners struggle with.

‘Work expands to fill the time available for its completion’

For example,

You have two weeks to complete the plans for a party. You could do this in just a few hours or a day at most. However, you have two weeks up your sleeve, so the plans for the party begin to grow and grow. You organise more and more, and the party becomes a large undertaking. Parkinson's Law is at play.

Why do we fall victim,

As business owners, we find ourselves available 24/7 rather than completing set tasks within a set amount of time each day.

We have this seemingly endless time and become less focussed on the immediate task. Each week flies by!

Have you ever heard that if you want something done, give it to a busy person and ask for it to be done yesterday? The fact is that deadlines work.

A team environment

It can be even worse when whole teams are involved as social loafing comes into play.

Social loafing leaves the weight of a project up to only a few group members while others loaf. People within business partnerships also experience this; one may be doing more than the other, which leads to resentment and ultimately a breakdown of the business partnership.

Parkinson's Law is, in fact, a perfect term for procrastination; you procrastinate so much that nothing gets done. You fill your time with other tasks rather than tasks that earn you an income.

Small business owners

You could potentially sabotage your small business with this phenomenon and not even realise it.

If you sell an item for $20 and its physical cost was $10 — how much time, energy and effort were put in to get a $10 profit? Do you also have rent to pay out of the $10 profit and other costs? How long did it take to find that product too — these are all your costs.

Designers — Do you have scope creep? Do you quote for a project and then spend way more time than you should have? Getting carried away with other aspects that ultimately cost you money.

Plenty of business owners have told me they are swamped all the time; however, they are not making any money. How can this be? Surely if you are run off your feet, you must be making money, right!!!!!!!!!

They are too busy for social media — but they need more clients. There is no money or time to spend on marketing, but they need to market their business.

Make the time now to review your business and see what you can be doing better and with more efficiency to start making money.

Be accountable to yourself!

How do you overcome Parkinson's Law?

Ideally, you want to stop it before it starts, but you can change how you are currently doing things.

• Outline the task — Remember that it is your business, and you get to set the rules and the schedule.
• Clarify the responsibilities — Are you doing all the work or outsourcing, or do you have staff?
• Know the time you have allocated — How many hours have you quoted for? Stick to it! And if you find yourself constantly spending more time than you have quoted, you need to adjust your quotes in the future.
• Selling products — How many do you need to sell each week? Time to hustle, or you won't sell enough. Do you need to find products with a better margin for more profit?
• Business owners, it is time to set your deadlines NOW.

I'd love to know if you have experienced Parkinson's Law in your business, work, or personal life.

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Thanks, Kelly