Lessons for a father - Parkinson's Law (Part 1)

Image Courtesy: Flickr(superslimmy)

Of all the laws that we have been exposed to since we were young and, among them, by people that have done us the huge honor of devising multiple laws, Parkinson's are my favorite (I apologize profusely, Sir Isaac Newton! You were a close second.).

There are quite a few of these laws by Cyril Northcote Parkinson a British Civil Servant in the 1950s, and all of them seem to have a common strain - that of increasing efficiency by decreasing bureaucracy in our daily lives. 

I like the laws because it keeps the humor intact while giving us an insight into how inefficient we all can really become. All of us, at some point in our lives, have experienced, first hand, the presence of Parkinson's law #1. 

Simply named after the man himself, it suggests that "[our] work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion". 

We procrastinate or we have a bad day or we had a restless night (try having a sick kid for 2 weeks and come to work all fresh and raring to go!). It might even be something as extreme (and scary!) as not loving what you do. Whatever the reason be, all of us have bowed to the supremacy of Parkinson's law at least once in our lives.

Mr. Parkinson, in his now famous essay in the Economist and a book, has provided multiple examples of why his theory is correct. I want to, however, look at the law under a different light.

What if the work was something I loved doing? What if the time that I had to complete it was my whole life? In other words, consider this: I love to learn new things. Wouldn't the law still hold true if instead of a few hours or days, I took an entire life to finish my work - to learn? I think it will.

So a law, formulated in the 1950s, has given me a very "legal" opportunity to learn and get better. There is nothing stopping me, neither God nor Government - since both seem to be on my side now, from being the best son, husband, father, friend, student, writer, software developer, blogger, mentor, or whatever else I want to be. I do not need to be the best in the next few years. Thanks to Mr. Cyril Northcote Parkinson, formerly of the British Civil Service, I have my entire life!