Design AtlasFrom a satirical 1955 essay by British historian C. Northcote Parkinson in The Economist. Observing bureaucracies, he noted that staff headcount grows regardless of actual workload — the same logic applies to how individuals manage time.
In UI, progress and deadline indicators exploit this. Hide the remaining time on a file upload and it feels like it's taking forever; give a submission too generous a deadline and everyone crams right before it anyway.
Below, A and B represent the same amount of real work, but with a long deadline progress barely moves until the very end, while the short deadline (B) still finishes exactly at its own cutoff.
When to use
Use this when setting a deadline or timebox — a generous window often buys procrastination, not quality.