In the following sections, I will present two strategies to reduce the impact of Parkinson's Law, procrastination, and Students' Syndrome, and one strategy for reducing the impact of Murphy's Law. These strategies, when effectively used, will significantly improve time management skills.
Before introducing the concept of frontend load, let's see the reverse, backend load, which is a problem.
"Backend load" refers to little work on the task in the early part of assigned time followed by colossal effort at the last minute. What this means is that people have a tendency to put in only small amounts of work, if at all, in the initial time available for the task and then a huge effort in the tail end. This is because of an illusion, a trick the mind plays upon you.
Even without considering external factors, there are three possible negative outcomes with backend load:
Overshooting the deadline: Even a heroic effort at the last minute cannot sometimes get the...