Parkinson's law
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion |
Corollaries |
Stock–Sanford corollary |
If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute to do |
Horstman's corollary |
Work contracts to fit in the time we give it |
Asimov corollary |
In ten hours a day you have time to fall twice as far behind your commitments as in five hours a day |
Computers corollary |
Data expands to fill the space available for storage |
Generalization Induced Demand |
The demand upon a resource tends to expand to match the supply of the resource |
The reverse is not true |
Law of demand |
the lower the price of a service or commodity, the greater the quantity demanded |
Law's Time Form |
The amount of time that one has to perform a task is the amount of time it will take to complete the task. |
Coefficient of inefficiency |
Size of a committee or other decision-making body at which it becomes completely inefficient. |
Optimal Size |
3 to 20 members |
Inefficient |
21 or more |
Hofstadter's law
It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law |
Douglas Hofstadter's 1979
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Murphy's Second Law
Everything takes longer than you expect |
Corollary to the law: Everything takes longer than it should, except obviously sex
Corollary to Corollary As the desire increases, so does the number of interruptions and the time available decreases
Sturgeon's law
Ninety percent of everything is crap |
Corollary: Stupid persons and stupidity acts reach as high as 99% of crap's causes
Carlson's Law
If you focus on a task without any break or interruption, it will take you less time to finish it |
Once you start doing something finish it!
Avoid interruptions and be focused!
Fraisse's Law
Time is a subjective variable depending on our own interest in the activity performed |
Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity. Albert Einstein
DeCaprio's Law
Everything takes more time and money |
So, be aware if you have enough |
Annie DeCaprio, Highbridge N.J., Harper's August 1974
Drazens Law of Restitution
The time it takes to rectify a situation is inversely proportional to the time it took to do the damage |
Hendricksons Law
If you have enough meetings over a long enough period of time, the meetings become more important than the problem the meetings were intended to solve |
Stigler's law of eponymy
No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer |
Mark Twain |
It takes a thousand men to invent a (...) important thing—and the last man gets the credit and we forget the others |
Matthew effect |
This pattern of recognition, skewed in favor of the established scientist, appears principally (i) in cases of collaboration and (ii) in cases of independent multiple discoveries made by scientists of distinctly different rank. |
Boyer's law |
Mathematical formulas and theorems are usually not named after their original discoverers |
Mathilda Effect |
The effect applies specifically to women. |
Alfred N. Whitehead's Corollary |
Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it |
Terentius (190-159 BC) |
Nothing has yet been said that's not been said before |
Examples: Hubble's law derived by Lemaître. The Pythagorean theorem to Babylonian mathematicians. Halley's comet observed by astronomers since at least 240 BC. Stigler himself named the sociologist Robert K. Merton as the discoverer of "Stigler's law"
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Lance's Law
If it aint broke, don't fix it |
Equivalent form: Don´t touch it if it works
Machine at work: Experiments with soda water
Lowerys Law
Just when you get really good at something you don't need it anymore |
Corollary: Or simply you don't like anymore
Pym's Law
Actions speak louder than words |
Corollary: Although actions speak loud there is always someone who is deaf, or simply too stupid to understand
Newton's Law
Every object at rest will stay at rest, and every object in motion will remain in motion |
if you are procrastinating, you are at rest, so it will be difficult for you to move |
If you are working you are moving, it is hard to stop because you feel happy when you accomplish your tasks |
Illich's Law
After a certain time, personal productivity tends to decrease, even reaching negative values |
Consider this: we have limited work capacity and can’t be completely focused too long.
Everybody needs breaks and sleep. And Love, of course.
Jevons' paradox
Technological progress increases the efficiency with which a resource is used (reducing the amount necessary for any one use), but the rate of consumption of that resource rises because of increasing demand |
Jevons' Complementary Corollary (Edward Glaeser) |
Improvements in information technology lead to more demand for face-to-face contact, because face time complements time spent communicating electronically |
Downs–Thomson paradox
The equilibrium speed of car traffic on a road network is determined by the average door-to-door speed of equivalent journeys taken by public transport |
Improvements in the road network will not reduce traffic congestion |
In fact, improvements in the road network can make congestion worse if the improvements make public transport more inconvenient or if it shifts investment, causing disinvestment in the public transport system |
aka the Pigou–Knight–Downs paradox
Pareto's Principle
80% of the outputs come from 20% of the inputs |
We spend most of the day working on tasks that don’t get us closer to our goals |
Principle of factor sparsity
Laborit Principle
We have got a natural tendency towards those tasks that require less effort from us |
We are far from be objective when choosing tasks
Habits that ruins productivity
Over / Under Planning |
Sit down and come up with a plan but do not waste too much time |
Multitasking |
Do not do too many things at a time |
Over-cluttered to-do lists |
Prioritise what’s most important and only include those tasks on your list |
Avoid delegate |
Delegate some work to skilled professionals and partners you can trust |
Working without protocols |
You need to establish a set of practices to kick your productivity |
Taking many meetings |
Unless it’s absolutely necessary avoid meetings |
Do not say 'NO' |
Do no let others decide for you. Not important? Then say ‘NO’ |
Not taking breaks |
Break big tasks into smaller pieces and plan breaks in between |
Checking your email constantly |
Save some time every day to check your mail, the rest to work |
Being overconnected |
Being too available raises your chances of being interrupted and distracted |
Not measuring your results |
Do you know what the actual results of your efforts are? |
Remember that rules – even productivity rules – are made to be broken |
Breaking habits offers new perspective and helps recharge us |
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