Increase Your Productivity With the 11 Laws of Time
By: Sylvain Saurel
Tags: Self Improvement, Management, Self Help, Productivity, Time Management

Productivity is a crucial issue for all those who want to achieve great things in life. In concrete terms, the goal is to achieve the maximum number of things in a given time while maintaining optimal quality. Achieving optimal efficiency is not easy. Nevertheless, over time, we gradually manage to put in place good practices to increase productivity in order to save time for ourselves.

Photo by Andreas Klassen on Unsplash

To help you in your quest for increased productivity, there are 11 laws of time that I will share with you. Based on empirical observations, they are mostly true and there is no need to seek to go against them. Instead, it is better to be aware of it in order to adopt your approach and get the most out of it.

Pareto’s Law

80% of our results are the result of 20% of our efforts

Pareto’s law, also known as the 80/20 principle, highlights the fascinating fact that 80% of the results we obtain are the product of 20% of our efforts. Based on this principle, you must know how to use it in your daily life to increase your productivity.

So you have to sort through what you do to focus your efforts on the 20% that bring you 80% of your results. As an entrepreneur, this will involve making choices to focus on the 20% of customers who give you the most results.

By favouring this approach, you will significantly increase your productivity both professionally and personally. Indeed, Pareto’s law also has the advantage of applying in this area.

Parkinson’s Law

The work is spread out in such a way as to occupy the time available for its completion

Highlighted by Cyril Northcote Parkinson on November 19, 1955 in an article published in The Economist magazine, this law stipulates that work will inevitably spread to occupy the time available for its completion. This law was highlighted by observing the inevitable multiplication of civil servants within the administrations.

Based on this principle, you can increase your productivity by setting clear and precise milestones for each of your tasks. This way, you will clearly delimit the time allotted to each task, which will allow you to take full advantage of Parkinson’s law.

Douglas’ Law

The more space you have in your office, the more you spread out your stuff

Douglas’ law is the counterpart in space of Parkinson’s law. This law highlights the fact that the more space you have in your office, the more you will spread your business. It should be noted that this law applies to both the physical and virtual desktops.

Thus, if you are not careful, you will tend to place your documents in a totally messy way, spreading out to occupy the entire space at your disposal. Doing so is detrimental to your productivity. To counteract the effects of Douglas’ law, it is essential that you adopt a clear and precise organization for your office, whether physical or virtual.

You are free to choose the most appropriate organization to increase your productivity.

Illich’s Law

After a while, productivity tends to decrease or even reach negative values

Illich’s law is an essential law for anyone who wants to achieve maximum productivity. Indeed, it highlights the fact that productivity tends to decrease or even reach negative values over time.

This clearly means that it is essential to take regular breaks during the working day in order to maintain optimal productivity. The myth of the person who would work optimally for more than 7 hours in a row is therefore only a myth.

Even better, this Illich’s law has been scientifically proven since we now know that after 45 minutes of consecutive work, we can only lose productivity. Based on this principle, you should take regular breaks and know that beyond a certain threshold of work during the same day, there is no point in trying hard.

To definitively boost your productivity, you must therefore define a working time for your day, stick to it while taking regular breaks to clear your mind.

Carlson’s Law

A work carried out continuously takes less time and energy than when it is carried out in several stages

Carlson’s law may be taken for granted by some. Nevertheless, many people tend to forget it, which reduces their daily productivity. This law clearly defines that continuous work will take less time and energy than when it is carried out in a fragmented way in several stages.

To get the most out of Carlson’s law, you need to bring together tasks of the same nature to perform them together and remove all distractions when you perform tasks. By doing so, you will boost your productivity.

Murphy’s Law

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong

Along with Pareto’s law, Murphy’s law is probably one of the most famous laws of the time. Indeed, you already know it because it is part of your daily life. Let’s take the famous example of the buttered toast that you drop on the floor in the morning for breakfast. Whatever happens, it will fall on the buttered side on the ground.

This law highlights that no matter what you do, if something can go wrong, it will happen. To take advantage of Murphy’s law, I see two things. The first is to always anticipate your tasks by preserving an alternative in the event of an unexpected problem. This way, you will never be caught off guard.

Then, when you do something, whether it is a prospect presentation, or a demonstration of an application to a customer, you must keep in a corner of your head that the unexpected can happen at any time.

This psychological preparation will help you not to be totally lost when the worst happens. This way, you can react and act accordingly.

Hofstadter’s Law

It always takes longer than expected, even taking into account Hofstadter’s law

Time is something impossible to control completely. Hofstadter’s law is there to remind us of that. Whatever happens, it always takes longer than expected to complete your tasks. And this, even if you are already aware of this phenomenon.

This recursive law therefore pushes us to anticipate as much as possible by adding extra time for the tasks we have to perform while keeping in mind that we will still see delays in the end. Of course, this delay will necessarily be greater than expected…

Fraisse’s Law

An hour is not always equal to an hour

Fraisse’s law highlights that time has a subjective dimension that varies according to the personal interest you have in the task you perform. So, when you do a cool task that you are passionate about, time will seem to pass very quickly. On the other hand, when you perform a task that you do not want to do, the same amount of time will seem longer to you.

Basically, you will want to take advantage of the Fraisse law by trying to have only pleasant tasks to perform. This way, time will always seem shorter to you. Nevertheless, in life, you will not always have only pleasant things to do.

Thus, the best approach is to alternate pleasant and unpleasant tasks in order to increase your productivity and keep a maximum of energy.

Laborit’s Law

A brain is first used to escape or fight

Laborit’s law simply reminds us that human behaviour encourages us to do what we like in the first place. Thus, when we are at work, we have an unfortunate tendency by instinct to seek immediate satisfaction and to escape stress.

This law is often referred to as the law of least effort as well. To take advantage of Laborit’s law and increase your productivity, you must organize your work day in such a way that you start the day with the most complex tasks. Indeed, this is when your energy is at its maximum and it is here that you have the best chance of completing these tasks.

Planning your workday in tasks of decreasing complexity is proving to be an excellent practice in terms of effective work time management.

Newton’s Movement Law

Every body perseveres in the state of rest or uniform movement in a straight line in which it finds itself, unless some force acts on it, and forces it to change state

Newton’s movement law seems irrelevant when it comes to productivity. Yet it has a real impact. Indeed, it highlights the fact that if you do not take action and are not proactive, nothing will happen to you. You will remain in the state you are in.

You must therefore take your destiny in hand and act on it to make great things happen. As a leader, it’s exactly the same thing. You must be the force that will act on your teams to help them change state and move in the direction you want to achieve.

Swoboda-Fliess-Teltscher’s Law

There are biological rhythms in humans that directly influence their productivity

Created by Wilhem Fliess, Alfred Teltscher and Hermann Swoboda, Swoboda-Fliess-Teltscher’s law has highlighted the existence of biological rhythms that influence our productivity. Among the influencing factors are the seasons, sunshine, food and the time of day.

Based on this law, Hermann Swoboda then gave the famous biorhythms their final form. This explains why this law is more often known as Swoboda’s law.

By taking this law into account, you will be able to define your best moments of productivity. Once you have discovered these niches where your performance is at its best, you will need to focus your maximum efforts on them. This will give you better results in less time.

The hardest part is therefore to find your moments of maximum productivity and especially the factors that positively influence your productivity.

Conclusion

The 11 laws of time set out in this article prove to be unstoppable. Since it is impossible to go against these laws, it is useless to seek to fight. On the contrary, it is necessary to know them better in order to better control them. This way, you will be able to get the most out of it in order to drastically increase your productivity on a daily basis.