Parkinson's Law and Hofstadter's Law show why work expands and projects run late; timeboxing, clear done criteria, and transparent deadlines give leaders a practical antidote.
Work expands to fill the time you give it, and projects consistently take longer than you expect. The piece opens with Parkinson's postcard story and Hofstadter's chess prediction to illustrate how optimism and lack of urgency let work stretch indefinitely. Those laws are why engineering teams miss deadlines and why estimates balloon.
The author recounts real friction: teams hide true dates to avoid expansion, multiply estimates, and end up with opaque planning. He then shows what works: timeboxing creates artificial scarcity, a concrete definition of done stops endless polishing, and public commitment forces early start. A schedule of Thursday mornings and a 400-word minimum with practical advice become guardrails that keep the work moving.
For leaders the takeaway is simple: make deadlines visible, carve out tight timeboxes, and spell out what "done" looks like. When motivation dips, the discipline of a fixed cadence and clear criteria prevents the spiral of perfectionism and missed delivery, rebuilding trust in both individuals and teams.
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