Parkinson's law says less is more.. no really!

Parkinson’s law sounds like something out of a medical dictionary, but in time management terms, this adage was made famous by Cyril Northcote Parkinson in an article in the Economist magazine in 1995.  Simply put, Cyril stated that “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion,” in other words, the longer you allow yourself to work on a specific task, the longer you will spend working on that specific task.  Another way of stating the same principle is.,“The amount of time which one has to perform a task is the amount of time it will take to complete the task.”

Parkinson’s advice to us is to create our own mini deadlines within the real deadlines in order to ensure we do not make a mountain out of a molehill.  This is great advice for perfectionists who love to get stuck and over-perform.  Procrastinators must also take heed as believe it or not procrastinators even use tasks to avoid other tasks, and can spend far too much time working on ‘important’ things to avoid the really important things!

It has even been proven that if we allow less time to work on a project, we often produce better results.  The longer we ‘mess around’, we tend to second guess ourselves and start to suffer from that deadly condition that The Time Clinic likes to call ‘overanalysis paralysis’.

So, the next time you have a large or medium sized project in front of you, create your own mini deadline within the actual deadline.  What is the worst that could happen? Exactly! It’s a win-win situation, chances are you will finish sooner than expected, and even have time over to address the really Important stuff. 

Did you know that Cyril derived his conclusion after his extensive work experience in the British civil service?  Enough said.

The Time Clinic interviews Online Marketing Guru Lechelle De Vries!

The Time Clinic recently interviewed Online Marketing Guru Lechelle De Vries, Marketing and Sales Manager of SAbest, to get some really great brand advice for our clients and secondly to find out more about Lechelle’s time management strategies now that she has experienced The Time Clinic!

SAbest is one of South Africa’s premier online marketing specialists that assist companies with online marketing from websites, SEO, social media, online reputation management and even infographic marketing – basically taking a company and creating online visibility for the organisation.  (Check them out at www.sabest.biz)

We asked Lechelle more about her role. “My role involves making decisions. And I get challenged on these decisions by management in order to stretch me, and this has really helped me grow.”  The Time Clinic assists delegates with determining when to make strategic decisions. We asked Lechelle if she found this module helpful?  “Yes, in two different ways. From a sales point of view and from a marketing perspective, it has been about moving time around, and being cognisant of the fact that there are times of the day when other people are aware of my vulnerabilities and tend to prey on me; it’s been a huge growth curve.  What has also really helped is understanding biorhythms – my own and others – and planning meetings around these times to get maximum results with this knowledge”.

We asked Lechelle what the greatest time management challenges in her industry are? She says, “it is important to realise this industry consists of a lot of technically orientated people”, and she has observed that under stress, technical types tend to react by calling meetings. The Time Clinic likes to call this ‘overanalysis paralysis’ and meetings can be a way to disguise procrastination.  Lechelle finds the best way to manage these situations is to allow meetings, but within limits, and to communicate deadlines clearly.

Brand oriented and creative companies also consist of a large amount of creative staff.  These industries have been rated as amongst the top three most stressful professions, comparable to air traffic control.  We asked Lechelle where the incredible stress and pressure in the creative industry originates? “The industry is definitely deadline driven, especially when we are dealing with website optimisation issues.  However, a lot of stress in the industry does come from little respect for creatives in South Africa as subject matter experts, and sometimes the client does not always know best, however the industry is definitely client centred and clients tend to dictate creative direction. ”  Lechelle further explained that South Africa has taken six years to reach the same level of online maturity that most other countries would reach within five due to our distrusting nature. 

We asked Lechelle about her predictions for the future trends in the industry and what advice she can offer clients?  She says things are changing, and in the last few months, she has seen South Africans become far more proactive and trusting with their online purchases.  The future of commerce is definitely electronic, following trends of countries like the UK where 95% of people’s purchases takes place online.  Her advice for businesses?  “It doesn’t help having a brand and not being seen.  And if you’re going to be seen, you need to be seen by the same person at least three times.  Cutting marketing budgets will negatively affect the bottom line.  Familiarity results in affiliation, and affiliation results in sales.  Everything works in threes.  The brain processes things in threes.  Make sure you get seen three times, even if you have to use the same media three times to get noticed.”

Thank you for that great advice Lechelle.  In closing, we would just like to say, Time Clinic, Time Clinic, Time Clinic.  And now that you have seen that three times, we look forward to seeing you all on our next course!