How to leave work at 5pm every day
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If the key to leaving work at 5pm is not being better at what you do, then how on earth does one do it?
Here’s a provocative question: Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could leave work at 5pm every day?
Most people think that’s simply impossible. But most people have forgotten what Elbert Young said 120 years ago:
“Of course it is Utopian and impossible until it is done.”
The question really is not whether. Not whether it’s possible to have healthy boundaries in life, to run at a sustainable pace or to leave work at 5pm. But rather, how. How does one actually do it?
The answer is simpler than you think. You might be tempted to start by trying to be more efficient in how you work. Unfortunately this approach runs into a brick wall called Parkinson's Law:
“Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”
So if the key to leaving at 5pm is not being better at what you do, then how on earth does one do it?
With the latest Star Wars movie on the circuit at the moment, I thought it would be cool to answer the question in the famous words of Yoda:
“Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
There is no secret to leaving at 5pm. It’s more Nike and less magic. You just do it.
The magic happens after you start habitually leaving at 5pm, because then Parkinson's Law begins working FOR you, not AGAINST you. Go ahead and try it for yourself and then judge the approach.