Permaculture in New Zealand

Parkinson's law[1] is worth bearing in mind when designing/working on projects/lifestyle updates etc... the below is an extract from The Four Hour Working Week, Tim Ferris[2]

I'm not sure where his book fits in with a permaculture lifestyle as its pretty capitalist/consumer intensive but as always we need to make use of all knowledge

Parkinson's Law dictates that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. It is the magic of the imminent deadline

• If I give you 24 hours to complete a project, the time pressure forces you to focus on execution, and you have no choice but to do only the bare essentials

• If I give you a week to complete the same task, it's six days of making a mountain out of a molehill. If I give you two months, God forbid, it becomes a mental monster

• The end product of the shorter deadline is almost inevitably of equal or higher quality due to greater focus

This presents a very curious phenomenon. There are two synergistic approaches for increasing productivity that are inversions of one another:

1.  Limit tasks to the important to shorten work time. (80/20)
2. Shorten work time to limit tasks to the important. (Parkinson's Law)

The best solution is to use both together: Identify the few critical tasks that contribute most to income and schedule them with very short and clear deadlines

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law

[2] http://www.amazon.co.uk/4-hour-Work-Week-Escape-Anywhere/dp/0091923727/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259623293&sr=8-1