Parkinson's Law · C. Northcote Parkinson

Parkinson's law examples

Curated by · reviewed 2026-05-31

Parkinson's Law says work expands to fill the time available for it. Give a task a week and it takes a week; give it an afternoon and it's somehow done by five. Examples:

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5 examples of parkinson's law

  1. The two-week report

    Given two weeks, a report drifts, gets over-researched, and lands at the deadline. The same report due tomorrow gets written tomorrow — and is often just as good.

  2. Meetings that fill the hour

    Book 60 minutes and the discussion stretches to 60 minutes. Book 25 and the same decision gets made in 25.

  3. Packing for a trip

    A whole free morning means you're still packing at noon. Ten minutes before the taxi, you pack everything you actually need in ten minutes.

  4. Email all day

    With no deadline, replying to email can absorb an entire workday. Boxed into two 20-minute windows, the same inbox gets handled.

  5. The student all-nighter

    A term-long essay condenses into the final night — proof the work could always have fit a smaller box.

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