How To Get More Done Faster
1 Dec 2022 · 9 min
Lori Harder applies Parkinson's Law—work expands to fill the time you give it—to show how tighter deadlines force focus. She shares how compressing timeframes helped her finish a course in a week and write a book in months, and argues that being intentional with limited time beats having endless hours.
Chapters
Be present in the moments when you're with your family. Be present in the downtime and push during those times where you have set the time to do the thing. Like, use your time for exactly what it is. Be present in the moments where you are down. Like, have downtime. And then be pushing in the moments where it's that compressed time to get stuff done. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the show. It's time for another quickie because there's always time to. To fit an inspiration. And you guys, I'm literally sitting in my car. I was early for a lash appointment. Yes, I'm getting lash extensions before the holiday. You're probably listening to this after Thanksgiving, but it is that time of year where beauty appointments are tough to get and it's early in the morning. This is not my usual time, but I was like, girl, fit me in wherever you can fit me in. And I just so happen to get here early and realize I really need to do a quickie this afternoon. And what better time to do it than sitting in the quiet of my car? I have my mother in law at my house with her dog, Doodles. So it's doodles and bananas at the house being absolutely batshit crazy. And the car seems to be my best recording studio right now, which I'm sure some of you are understanding because maybe your car is not your recording studio, but maybe it's your spa where you go to get 10 minutes of alone time or to take your calls. I can't tell you how many people you guys, I have been on podcasts with, like, really amazing, successful people who are like, yo, I am in my car right now because I can't find any spot in my house to do this. I'm like, I get it. When all else fails, go park somewhere and get your stuff done in your vehicle. So here we are. And I have been thinking about this concept of really filling the space that you have been given meaning. A lot of us think that it takes a long time in order to get certain things done. And there is an actual law called Parkinson's Law. And Chris and I have talked about this for years, but we didn't actually know that it had a law that is a universal law that someone has created. Parkinson's Law. It says work expands to fill the time created for it. And for all of us right now, we have limited time. And let me tell you something about what working in your car does. You don't want to be in here very long. So what I'm doing is I am filling this time, right now, I'm doing it very quickly because I only have a short amount of time. So it's only going to take me a short amount of time to say, what the hell do I want to talk about today? And how quickly can I get this done? And let me just tell you, you that this analogy of even being in my car is saying, okay, well, you don't get to sit in your cushy office right now and think of a million ideas and say, ah, you know what? I don't like that one. Let's look at another one. It's get idea, record idea. And this sometimes is a lot of the work that you have to put out in the world. Some of you might be disagreeing with me and saying, oh, it all has to be good. Except that might be limiting you on what is getting out into the world. And I really think that the more consistent, consistently you show up, the more ideas are gonna flow. And a lot of times the ideas that you don't think are good are the ideas that other people think are great. It's literally, like, astounding how many times I've released something that I'm like, oh, that sucks. That all of a sudden gets this crazy response from people. So this is your reminder that no matter what time you are given or you are giving yourself to finish something, you will fill it. So if you have a course to finish or a book to finish and you say, okay, I' to finish this book in six months, you will use every month of that six months to finish that book. If you say, I have a year, you'll use every day of that year to finish that book. If you say, I only have three months, and I've already gotten paid for this and I have accountability around it. I have that publisher, you will somehow figure out to dramatically get that book done in three months. And here's what I'm challenging myself with right now. I know that if someone said, write this book in two weeks because I have a friend who just did it. I have a lot of other people who I know who have done this in Masterminds. They have gotten it done because we will expand our work or compress our work to fill the time created for it. So where is somewhere that you're giving yourself too much time? Even when I'm like, oh, you know what? I'll get back on my health plan over the next six months. Hell, no, I won't. I am gonna do whatever it takes to go every single day to that new workout class right now because I need to whip my butt back into consistency. So what does that look like for me to compress getting back into my routine? Right. What does it look like? Like I'm going to try here and there and sometimes this is important. It depends on what season you're in. But right now I'm in a butt kicking season. So you're probably going to hear some things that if you're not in this season, you might want to go listen to somebody else who is in a slower season. Because trust me, when I'm in like a getting of my season of getting my shit together and getting back in the groove, like when I'm all together and when I'm needing to slow down, like I need to go listen to people who are like, look sister, you need to relax. You need to just sit in this space of being in the season that you're in because not everybody is in this season right now. But this is my warning that I'm in a butt kicking season. And if you're in that season, this is a good time to tune in because I'm going to be talking all about making sure we get to the places that we want to get to. I mean, I'm literally in the process of writing a book about compressing time and going for it, you guys. So I'm really excited about the thoughts and the concepts that are going on right now. And really I am using Parkinson's loss. So much work expands to fill the time created for it. Where can you look at a place where you've given yourself a lot of time and look at saying, you know what, I'm going to finish that course in a week. I'm just going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to put it out, I'm going to get feedback and I'm going to tweak it from there. Or you know what? I'm going to get back on the wagon this week. I'm going to book a class every single day, Monday through Friday. And by the end of the week, I'm going to feel like I'm back on the wagon and I'm consistent. Or you know what, I'm going to finally write that book. And not only am I going to write it, I'm going to write it in less than a year, I'm going to write it in three months, I'm going to write it in six months and I'm going to pay somebody to hold me accountable. It's all about looking at compressing time. And you can get so much more done with this theory.
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Now again, if you're not in the season, if you need to be gentle on yourself, I honor that I have those seasons often, right? That's why I can have these seasons of running. So that's what I wanna remind you. Whatever season you're in, go and seek and find what you need. You know when you need a butt kicking? You just do. You know when you're like, okay, I've been living kind of cushy, I've been a little easy on myself. It's time to go to the next level and in order to go to the next level, it's time to stretch and it's time to challenge yourself. And this is the season, right? Rest, recharge, rejuvenate, get fresh ideas, then run, then do it again and repeat. Okay? I'm sending guys so much love. Thank you so much for being in my recording studio of my vehicle this morning. We are getting shit done, you guys. It's what we're doing right now and I'm so proud of you. Be present in the moments when you're with your family. Be present in the downtime and push during those times where you have set the time to do the thing. Like use your time for exactly what it is. Be present in the moments where you are down. Like have downtime and then be pushing in the moment where it's that compressed time to get stuff done. All right, I'm sending you so much love and until next time, earn your happy.
Bye everyone.
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