You have to wonder if Parkinson’s Law was made specifically for those with ADHD.
Parkinson’s Law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
If you have ADHD then this probably reads like your life story.
Get a task that you don’t want to do so what do you do? You wait until the last moment to complete it because if you’re aware of Skinner’s Law, then you know you can only act on some things when the pain of not doing it becomes greater than the pain of doing it.
I was in a special program in high school. Toward the end of my Senior Year I was required to turn in an essay around a topic of my choosing.
This doesn’t seem so bad until you realize that I chose the topic at the beginning of my Junior Year. I had almost two years to write an essay and I waited until the week before the deadline to start working on it.
I didn’t see a need to do so before then, but let me tell you that if somehow I could’ve worked on that essay over those two years (on and off) it would’ve been miles better than whatever I handed in.
My ADHD wants me to believe my best work happens at the last second and it’s possible that it does sometimes, but I do believe if I didn’t expand the time to work on something then I would see better results.
Why?
To See Patterns You Need Time to See Them
My best work happens when I’m able to connect the dots. When I can see how something that many others feel is unrelated to the main thing actually have a strong connection to it.
The problem is that it can take time to see these patterns or it might take time for them to emerge in my life.
To make this easier to understand let’s say I had 18 months to work on the essay. If I had started working on it in month 1, then I could subconsciously begin to look for patterns.
Something might’ve happened in month 3 that introduced me to something new. Or maybe I come across something in month 7 that seems insignificant but I come across something else in month 10 that makes it relevant.
But because I waited until the end of month 18 to work on it, there was no time to let those random patterns emerge. I could only go by what I knew and what I came across during that week.
It makes for less meaningful work.
Overcoming Parkinson’s Law
I don’t have an easy way to overcome Parkinson’s Law and I’m not really one for playing tricks on my brain.
For example, telling myself I can’t do one thing until that other thing is finished won’t work because my brain will rebel and go and do the thing that it wants.
So what I try to do is find a way to make the journey interesting. What do I feel like I can pick up along the way that will make me want to start now instead of later?
If I can find that then I’m onto something. If I can’t then it will be a struggle and Skinner’s Law kicks in.