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I’ve been hearing a lot about “Parkinson’s Law” recently, which is the idea that the more time you have, the more time it will take you to do a job. This idea also expands to other areas. The more money you have, the more you will spend (and without necessarily getting more value). 

I’ve always been the type of person that needs a deadline in order to get anything done, so learning about Parkinson’s Law really resonated with me. In fact, I’ve been able to increase my productivity by scheduling time for specific tasks and not allowing myself to deviate from my schedule. One example is that I only write blog posts on Thursdays, specifically within a 45 minute time slot. (I used to try to write every weekday. )What happened as a result has been surprising. My previous goal was to publish a post every two weeks. Then I committed to a more restricted, but regular blogging schedule (with the help of my fabulous blogging “co-worker” to keep me accountable). Since then, I have been publishing every week for the past 8 or 9 months, with the rare exception, usually due to travel. I credit author David Kadavy for helping me figure out how to get more productivity out of my time, with his book “Mind Management, Not Time Management: Getting Art Done”. 

I was raised to be a “penny pincher”, and that has kept me from having any major money problems. But over the last few years I’ve been a bit sloppy, having income that easily exceeds my living expenses. (I’m not rich. I just don’t pay rent, nor do I own a car). I started to realize that my bank balance has been pretty stagnant.  This is mainly because I’ve been investing in my business quite a bit without doing precise calculations, and just hoping for the best. I decided that was going to change this year. While doing my taxes, I made a note of my expenses from last year, and my new plan is to not spend more on my business in 2025 than I did in 2024. Since I already know my budget, I’ve been able to plan my business trips earlier, saving me money on airfare and hotel rates. I’ve also stopped myself from signing up for at least two workshops out of FOMO. Instead, I designated a smaller amount of money for more constructive purposes. Mike Michalowicz goes into Parkinson’s Law and how it applies to money in “Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine”.

Another area of my life where I’ve been using this concept is with my book consumption. As you may have guessed, I’m a huge reader. I consume at least one  book every week for leisure, despite being a busy adult who also reads for a living full-time. One thing that I’ve noticed though, is that although I have 3 or 4 different audiobook apps on my phone, I usually only finish books on the “Libby” app. The reason is simple. Libby is the library app, and I can only keep library books for three weeks at a time. Having a time constraint gives me the motivation I need to start my next book as soon as I finish one, and to read or listen every day. That’s pretty cool, because it means I get to hear more great stories, and even learn life changing advice from Non-Fiction books like the ones I mentioned in the last two paragraphs. (I got audiobook versions of both on my Libby (Library) app!)

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