Parkinson's Law and Your Planner: Time Blocking Guide

Water has no shape of its own. Pour it into a small glass and it becomes a small glass of water. Pour it into a wide basin and it spreads out to fill that too. Work behaves in the same way.

Think of the last time you had a free afternoon for a small job. It took the whole afternoon. Then think of a day with only an hour before a deadline. The same kind of job got done in that hour. The work did not get easier on the busy day. The container simply got smaller. There is a name for this: Parkinson's law.

What is Parkinson’s Law

This was first noted by C. Northcote Parkinson who states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. A loose deadline removes urgency. With plenty of time, nothing forces a decision, so decisions wait. We either procrastinate or fill the space with extras.

The time we set aside decides how big the task feels. The time we set aside also sets the pace. If an hour is booked, we quietly slow to an hour and the slot starts to feel like the size of the task

The Fix Is Simple: Time Blocking

Time blocking is a planning method in which each task gets a specific start time and end time, instead of sitting on an open-ended to-do list. We stop asking, "What do I need to do today?" and start asking, "When will I do it?"

How to Start Time Blocking: Five Ways and Common Questions

1.Decide how long a task deserves before starting it.

Put a number on it. "Sometime in the afternoon" is not a size, but "forty minutes, ending at 3:40” is. Decide the length of the task before starting and it stops being open-ended.

2. Treat a block like an appointment.
You wouldn’t cancel a meeting with someone else for no reason. Give your own blocks the same respect. If something else wants that time, move it deliberately instead of letting it slide.

3. Give each block one focus.
Switching between different kinds of work costs time and attention and it makes everything take longer. Keep each block to a single purpose and let everything else wait for its own slot.

4. Give small tasks a block of their own.
Emails, calls, messages and errands are small on their own, but they scatter your attention across the day. Put them together in one or two short blocks, so your longer blocks stay free for work that needs depth.

5. Note how long things really took.
Beside each finished task, jot down the actual time. After a week or two you’ll see which tasks you overestimate and which you underestimate, and your blocks will get more accurate each time.

How Long Should a Time Block Be?

There's no fixed rule. Many people find that 45 to 90 minutes works well for focused tasks, and 15 to 30 minutes for small ones like emails. Start with the best estimate, trim it slightly, and adjust as we learn.

What If I Don't Finish Within the Block?

That's not failure. Move the leftover to a new block after a brief break, and give that kind of task more time next time.

Is a paper planner better than an app for time blocking?

Yes. Writing a block by hand makes us slow down and decide and that effort helps it stick in our memory. Studies on handwriting suggest it supports recall better than typing, so we’re more likely to remember what we planned and when. A paper planner also has no notifications or tabs, so nothing pulls us away from the plan.

How the Neorah planner puts this to work

Time blocking works best when we can see the whole picture and that is what the Neorah planner is built for. Its clean, uncluttered pages keep our attention on the plan, which makes decisions easier.

The weekly view covers every day from morning to night, with vertical time slots, so time becomes something we can actually see.

Seeing the full week also shows us things a list hides. We notice which day is packed and which is nearly empty, so we can move work across the week. We can place a big project in smaller pieces on different days. We can also spot a day with no gaps and add breathing room before it gets too overwhelming.

The A5 Weekly Planner also gives us two pages after each week, and they are handy for more than notes. We can brain dump everything on our mind, break big tasks into small pieces and plan better for the days ahead.

Start With One Block

Time blocking doesn’t give us more hours. It gives us something better, a day we can account for. At the end of the day, we know what got done and what didn’t and why. The vague, tired feeling of being busy all day without much to show for it starts to fade.

Start small. One block tomorrow with the Neorah Weekly planner, having a real start and a real end. When we finish what matters, the day feels lighter.