98. The Law of Time Pressure

There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important things.

When you find yourself under pressure to get a job done by a particular deadline, you are forced to be vastly more efficient than you would ever be if you felt that you had ample time. This explains why so many people get the job done only when they are faced with stringent deadlines.

Parkinson’s Law says, “Work expands to fill the time allotted for it.” If you have two hours of work to do and an entire day in which to do it, the work will tend to expand gradually, and will take you all day long to complete the two hours of work.

However, the reverse is also true. It is “Work contracts to fill the time allotted ...

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