Time Management Laws: 11 Laws for More Efficiency at Work
Do you feel like you're chasing the clock without ever being able to check all the boxes on your to-do list? Time management is a challenge, and the frustration of not having done enough can impact your productivity and even your well-being. Luckily, there are solutions! In this article, we are going to explore 11 laws of time management. They will help you boost your productivity and reach your goals with confidence.
What is a time management law?
A time management law is a guiding principle, often based on observation and experience. It offers a specific approach and strategy to improve efficiency and productivity.
11 time management laws for optimal productivity
Time management laws have a number of advantages. They allow you to prioritize your tasks, plan your time, improve your concentration and avoid procrastination.
So these laws provide a framework for you to make more informed decisions about how you use your time in general.
1. Murphy's law
“Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” (“Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong” in English).
Edward A. Murphy Jr., an American aerospace engineer specializing in critical systems, developed this pessimistic law. This law is also known as the Maximum Embarment Law (LEM) or the law of buttered bread, this principle is regularly verified at work when hazards delay your projects.
The law in practice: This law requires you to always imagine the worst, pushes you to anticipate potential problems and to think of solutions to limit or even eliminate them.
How Wimi can help you: Centralize communication and documents on Wimi to avoid misunderstandings and information losses that can cause delays or errors.
2. The Swoboda-Fliess-Teltscher law
This law is not scientifically proven. However, it assumes that we are more or less effective depending on the phase of the day. According to the Swoboda-Fliess-Teltscher law, it is therefore necessary to take into account biological rhythms in order to gain performance at work.
The law in practice: The idea is to plan the day according to your own biological rhythms. To do this, ask yourself what time of day you are in the best shape or when to prioritize tasks that require significant concentration.
How Wimi can help you: The tool integrates task scheduling. Create tasks with estimated durations in order to better plan your day taking into account your productivity peaks.
3. The Pareto principle
Also known as the 20-80 law, the Pareto Principle states that 80% of the effects are the product of 20% of the causes. Invented at the beginning of the 20th century by Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, this principle is true in many fields, including project management.
This principle means that 80% of the turnover is produced by 20% of the customers or that 20% of the projects give 80% of the results. The Pareto principle therefore helps you to identify the most important tasks to do.
The law in practice: You need to review your priorities, focus on important tasks, and delegate secondary tasks. Do not hesitate to abandon projects that are not profitable and waste your time as well as human and financial resources.
How Wimi can help you: Thanks to Wimi's task management system, assign priority levels to tasks and quickly identify the 20% that will have the most impact on the progress of the project.
4. Parkinson's law
Parkinson's law is a fundamental law of work organization. It was published by Cyril Northcote Parkinson, a British writer, in an article in The Economist on November 19, 1955.
The law in practice: The principle of this law is as follows: “the work is spread out in such a way as to occupy the time available for its completion”. In summary, the more time you have to complete a task, the more time that task takes.
How Wimi can help you: By using Wimi's time tracking feature, you can become aware of the real time you're spending on each task and identify situations where you tend to “stretch” the work. Break projects into tasks and subtasks and estimate the time needed for each stage. Do not hesitate to set short deadlines, which limits the risk of procrastination.
5. Kotter's law
Kotter's law, developed by John P. Kotter, a professor at the Harvard Business School, can be summed up in a few words: “The best changes start with immediate results.”
The law in practice: The philosophy behind this law is to divide an objective into several small objectives. Step by step, you reach your goal without being discouraged.
How Wimi can help you: Dividing the project into tasks and sub-tasks allows clear goals to be set and progress to be monitored transparently while maintaining a high level of motivation.
6. Carlson's law
With this law, the Swedish economist Sune Carlson says that any interrupted work will be less efficient and take longer than if it were done continuously.
The law in practice: the interruption seriously affects productivity. Telephone, emails, discussions with colleagues, and other outside distractions prevent you from concentrating and doing your work as effectively as possible. Did you know that it takes us between 3 and 5 minutes to get back to work? Over a working day, this is a significant waste of time.
How Wimi can help you: Wimi offers a “Do not disturb” function by clicking on a bell pictogram that allows you to deactivate notifications and alerts for a given period of time. It is ideal for promoting concentration and limiting interruptions.
7. Taylor's law
Taylor's law, formulated by Frederick Winslow Taylor, American engineer and father of the scientific organization of work, states that “the order in which we perform a series of tasks directly affects how long they take us.”
The law in practice: To put Taylor's law into practice, you need to take into account the nature of the tasks, their dependence, their duration, and your own productivity rhythms.
How Wimi can help you: The Wimi Gantt chart allows you to visualize the relationships between the various tasks and to organize them logically to respect dependencies.
8. Illich's law
Also called the law of diminishing returns, the law of Illich, an Austrian environmental thinker, states that “beyond a certain threshold, human efficiency decreases, or even becomes negative.”
The law in practice: After 90 minutes spent on a task, our attention and efficiency decrease. The more you force yourself to keep working, the less efficient you are. If you can't finish a task, stop the hard work and take a break.
How Wimi can help you: Wimi makes it easy to delegate tasks to members of your team, allowing you to better distribute the workload and avoid overload.
9. Laborit's law
According to Henri Laborit, a French surgeon and neurobiologist, our behavior pushes us to do what we enjoy first. At work, our instincts encourage us to avoid stress.
The law in practice: It is because of this law that we procrastinate, that is, we postpone a task until the next day. Laborit's law is also nicknamed “the law of least effort”, underlining the fact that we prefer to perform tasks that give us immediate satisfaction.
How Wimi can help you: Use the task management and shared agenda offered by Wimi to effectively plan your days by starting with the most important and difficult tasks, even if they are less attractive.
10. Hofstadter's law
Also called the law of planning slippage, Hofstadter's law states that “more time is always needed than expected, even taking into account Hofstadter's Law.” It was stated by Douglas Hofstadter, an American academic, in his book Gödel, Escher, Bach: The Strands of an Eternal Garland, published in 1979.
The law in practice: For Hofstadter, it often happens that people make a mistake in evaluating the time required to complete a project, either because they are unaware of the work to be done, or to please their hierarchy by announcing deliberately shorter deadlines. However, deadlines end up being pushed back and the schedule slips and falls.
How Wimi can help you: When estimating the duration of a task, add a margin of safety to account for unexpected events and interruptions. Wimi allows you to add estimated durations to tasks, and you can easily adjust them if needed.
11. Newton's law
Isaac Newton, a mathematician, physicist, and philosopher born in the 17th century, formulated his first law as follows: “An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion at a constant speed in a straight line, unless an external, non-zero force acts on it.”
The law in practice: According to this principle of inertia applied to the world of work, the less active we are, the more we procrastinate and conversely, the more active we are the more we tend to stay active. So the important thing is to get started.
How Wimi can help you: Visualize your progress and achievements with Wimi dashboards and reports. This can encourage you to keep up your efforts and stay active.
