Parkinson's Law

The best travel books, Parkinson's Law, and the latest product reviews

Author

Kelsey Reaves
July 28, 2023

I belong to the group of people who pack three books for a trip but end up reading only the first page.

However, as winter takes hold in Cape Town and with this weekend's gloomy weather forecast, I've decided to embrace the coziness and curl up with a good book and a warm cup of Rooibos tea.

Additionally, we have an exciting project in the works for next month—a compilation of the best travel books. And what better way to create this list than by seeking input from all you wonderful SiteSeers out there? So I’d like to ask you:

When you’re looking to stir up some serious Wanderlust, what’s your go-to travel book? (And if your book doesn’t appear on the list, reply directly to this email and let us know).

Your valuable recs will help shape our curated selection of travel reads.

Hey, this is Kelsey, founder of SiteSee. I’ll send an email like this every Friday where I’ll share my musings from my travels, the latest research undertaken by our travel writers, as well as recommendations for travel products, interesting podcasts, good reads, and more.

It’s the phenomenon that work will expand to fill the time allotted for its completion.

In other words, things become harder to complete when more time is given to complete them as the anticipation of the task becomes stressful and daunting.

In Parkinson's original example, a woman's simple task was to mail a postcard, but with the entire day at her disposal, she ended up spending hours on various aspects, such as finding the right postcard, writing, searching for a stamp, addressing the postcard, and walking to the post office. In reality, this task would’ve taken just 3 minutes to complete.

Why do I bring this up? Because I’ve been hardcore procrastinating on reviewing travel products.

And it's not that I don't enjoy doing it, but every brand I collaborate with keeps saying, "Take your time, no rush. Just provide us a review whenever you can."

This means it’s now been over 2 months and…crickets…

In truth, writing these reviews probably takes me less than 2 hours per product. So last week, I decided enough is enough and set a deadline for myself for July 31st.

Here's what I did to get them done (and it might help you finish that task you've been avoiding—we all have one).

1. Got a candle and when it was lit, it signaled ‘work time’.

Krista from the Almost 30 Podcast suggested a helpful idea: use a candle as a signal to work on a specific project. Lighting the candle when it was time to work trained my brain to focus and be productive. It's a bit like conditioning, similar to Pavlov's dog experiment.

2. Worked in increments

I used a 45-minute timer during which I refrained from checking my phone, looking at emails, or even going to the bathroom. I found 45 minutes to be optimal—it allows me to fully immerse myself in a task without getting demotivated or daydreaming about what Netflix show I'll watch later.

3. Barricaded myself in a conference room

If all else failed, I would seclude myself in a room and didn’t emerge until a review was complete. Once it was done, I’d walk to the nearest gas station and treat myself to a Cadbury chocolate bar (don’t sleep on their Top Deck slab).

And without further ado, here’s the first batch of reviews I finished using the methods above:

Thanks so much for reading, and if you found something useful or interesting in this email, mind forwarding this newsletter to a friend (or having them subscribe here)?

Otherwise, thanks again and feel free to reply here. I open and respond to everything.

Onwards,

Kelsey