There was a guy called C. Northcote Parkinson who said something very useful and profound. He said:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

Which means that a task you give yourself 1 hour to do will, by virtue of the time assigned to it, be simpler to do than the SAME task, if you give yourself 1 week to do it in.

As Tim Ferriss puts it in his book, The 4-Hour Work Week, you then have 6 days of turning a molehill into a mountain.

Ferriss also says that, to be more effective in your work, you should set out to do the same work in MUCH less time.

So I decided to test this theory out this weekend and here's what happened...

On Saturday, I spent 1 hour and 15 minutes finishing some work that I thought would take at least 2-3 hours. I simply set the tight deadline and then did the work. The shorter timeframe forced me to focus on the bare essentials and I got the work done!

I spent the rest of Saturday chilling and relaxing. (I had planned to work most of Saturday)

On Sunday, I spent 1 hour and 4 minutes finishing some work that I thought would take 2-4 hours. I spent the rest of the time with my family. (Yes, I had planned to work most of the day!) Are we seeing a pattern yet?

In short: I achieved in 2 hours and 19 minutes what I would normally dedicate 4-7 hours to do.

And, in short, I had a really great weekend.

The most important part of this all is that I normally procrastinate on any task that will take more than an hour to complete. Now I don't need to because the shorter timeframe forces me to simplify and focus which means that things get done and I don't procrastinate.

Next, I'm going to try this during the week. My goal is to achieve in 2-4 hours what I would normally spend the whole day doing. And then I'm going to play guitar, watch TV and spend time with my wife.

Yes, Parkinson's Law is my new best friend!