A word of warning from one of the founding fathers of time management, Cyril Northcote Parkinson (creator of Parkinson’s Law and author of the book by the same name).

Here’s a short story he told…

Imagine a committee meeting to rubber-stamp two agenda items:

  1.  The plans for a £1bn nuclear power plant

  2.  The plans for a £1k bike shed

How does this rip-roaring extravaganza of a meeting go?

Well, the committee spends a few minutes discussing the nuclear power plant.  The plans are full of jargon and, hardly surprisingly, no-one understands all the detail.

One committee member tables a redesign.  But it’d take months.  So the plan is waved through.

Time taken:  5 minutes

Next up is the bike shed.  And this really gets people interested.

There are a few spandex warriors in the group.  But even the non-cyclists have strong views.

Discussion begins with where the shed should be located.  Then moves to the layout of the shed.  Then the material for the roof.  And the colour of the shed. 

Some finger wagging, raised voices and remonstrating come next.  And discussion is still going as the meeting draws to an end.

Time taken:  55 minutes.

I’m sure you’ll agree – but this strikes me as COMPLETELY BANANAS!

And it’s known as The Bikeshedding Effect. 

Parkinson described it simply as when trivial issues get given a disproportionate amount of time.

And we’ve all been there.

Sitting round a table discussing a mind-numbingly insignificant topic while every man & his grandma tries to get their point across.  And the hot button issues get brushed aside.

Needless to say, this something to avoid.

And to see what I recommend for wiping out this problem, look no further than my Time Conqueror Challenge.

In particular, a couple of ideas I talk about on Day 2.

Interested?

I’m only making Time Conqueror available to people who are signed up to my emails.

So if you’d like to join, here’s the link