My youngest reminded me of Parkinson’s Law this week.
He had homework he knew needed to get done, but he hadn’t gotten around to it. By the time he remembered, he also had a baseball game that night.
The homework still had to get done. Now it was just going to happen after the game, which meant staying up later and probably being tired the next day.
As a reminder, Parkinson’s Law says that “work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”
I tried to explain to him that the homework wasn’t really the problem. He was going to have to do it either way.
The problem was the trade-off he had created by waiting.
If he had done it earlier, he would have had more flexibility. By waiting until he was running out of time, he had narrowed his options. The same homework now came at the expense of sleep.
That was the lesson I wanted him to see.
When we put something off, we tend to think we are simply choosing to do it later.
Usually, we are also choosing whatever trade-off comes with doing it later.
Maybe that means staying late. Maybe it creates unnecessary pressure. Maybe someone else has less time to do their part. Maybe a thoughtful decision becomes a rushed one. Maybe something manageable becomes urgent.
The work still has to get done. Waiting just changes the conditions under which we have to do it.
That lesson feels especially familiar to us at MillerClapperton.
As a subcontractor, we are often working near the end of a project. By the time our work begins, a lot of decisions have already been made, schedules have shifted, and time has been used up.
And sometimes, the trade-offs made earlier in the project inevitably become our problem.
A delayed decision becomes a compressed schedule. A late release becomes an urgent fabrication need. Lost time somewhere upstream becomes overtime or added pressure downstream.
The work still has to get done. The question is who ends up absorbing the trade-off.
It makes me wonder who I need to sit down with next and explain the importance of getting their homework done on time.
All joking aside, it is a good reminder for all of us.
When we delay something, the cost does not always stay with us. Sometimes someone else ends up paying for the time we used.