Parkinson’s Law — Why Work Expands to Fill the Time You Give It

today we’re tackling one of the most quietly destructive forces in modern life — a principle that explains bloated meetings, missed deadlines, and why your five-minute task took an entire afternoon.

It’s called Parkinson’s Law, and it goes like this:

“Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”

Let’s get smarter.

The phrase was coined in 1955 by British historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson, who observed that bureaucracies tend to grow in complexity, even when their workload doesn’t. In a government office, for instance, one person doesn’t delegate — they request an assistant. Then both feel too busy, and another assistant is added. The work grows — not because it needs to, but because space was created for it.

But Parkinson’s Law isn’t just about bureaucracies. It applies to your life. Your inbox. Your projects. Your calendar.