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A packed schedule breaks from overuse. An empty schedule atrophies from underuse. Without a deadline tomorrow, tonight slips to midnight because of Parkinson's law: give a night no reason to end and it stretches. Meanwhile, stacking back-to-back commitments works like corporate financial debt: one unexpected fire wipes out the entire day. Morgan Housel runs his days at 80% capacity for the same reason. Structure your calendar with enough due tomorrow that tonight ends on time, and enough slack that a surprise costs an hour instead of the day.
Show Notes
A packed schedule breaks from overuse. An empty schedule atrophies from underuse. Without a deadline tomorrow, tonight slips to midnight because of Parkinson's law: give a night no reason to end and it stretches. Meanwhile, stacking back-to-back commitments works like corporate financial debt: one unexpected fire wipes out the entire day. Morgan Housel runs his days at 80% capacity for the same reason. Structure your calendar with enough due tomorrow that tonight ends on time, and enough slack that a surprise costs an hour instead of the day.
Featuring: Morgan Housel, Cyril Northcote Parkinson
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Chapters:
(00:00) A phone deadline that slips to midnight
(00:17) Parkinson's law governs evenings too
(00:34) A packed Monday schedule with no buffer
(00:53) Morgan Housel on debt and the range of outcomes
(01:12) An empty schedule fails from underuse
(01:19) Housel runs his days at 80 to 90 percent capacity
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"As debt increases, you narrow the range of outcomes you can endure in life."
Morgan Housel
I plan to put my phone down at 10 each night. If nothing is due tomorrow, 10 turns into midnight.
Without a deadline tomorrow, I take tonight less seriously and stay up late.
In 1955 British historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson wrote that work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
The same rule governs evenings. Give a task a week and it takes the week. Give a night no reason to end and it stretches to midnight.
On Mondays I stack four or more calls: two masterminds, a team call and a one-on-one. Back-to-back conversations leave no buffer. By afternoon my energy drops.
A packed schedule works only when nothing goes wrong.
One late call or one small fire and the rest of the schedule collapses.
Morgan Housel describes debt the same way. The more of it a company carries, the fewer scenarios it survives.
A company with no loans can sit through a recession. A leveraged one dies in the downturn.
Calendar commitments work like financial debt.
Stack too many and one surprise wipes out the day.
An empty schedule fails from underuse. With nothing to push against, simple tasks expand to fill the whole day.
Housel runs his days at 80 or 90 percent of capacity for the same reason.
"I'm not interested in anything that's not sustainable. Friendships, investing, careers, podcasts, reading habits, exercise habits."
I want enough due tomorrow that tonight ends on time and enough slack that a surprise costs an hour instead of the day.
A packed day breaks from overuse. An empty day atrophies from underuse.
What could you drop from your fullest day so one surprise can't sink it?