I just heard Parkinson’s Law on Tim Ferris’ Incredible Hulk video. Oddly, it has nothing to do with the degeneration of the nerves.
Parkinson’s Law:
The perceived complexity of the task will expand to fill the time you allot it.
Nice …
I guess the point is: set seemingly impossible deadlines, and you’ll accomplish what you need to do sooner. This is anti-intuitive but rings true to experience.
Presumably realism needs to come into play somewhere, particularly if you’re setting deadlines for software development that other people are going to rely upon … but I find this is a great principle to cut through the self-inhibiting and self-limiting paradigms we create.
Something to keep in mind next time you set a deadline …