You're Not Going to 'Find Time' (And That's Actually Good News)

Let me guess. You have a course idea, a membership concept, a book outline, maybe even a whole programme mapped out in your head. You know it's good. You know your clients need it. And you've been telling yourself, for months, possibly years, that you're going to get around to building it just as soon as things quieten down a bit.

Except they don't quieten down. The diary fills. The sessions run back to back. The evenings disappear. And the idea stays exactly where it is: in your head, full of potential, gathering metaphorical dust.

Here's something I want to share with you, and I'm going to frame it as kindly as I can because I think it matters. You're not going to find time. You never were. Not because you're doing anything wrong, but because of something called Parkinson's Law, and once you understand it, everything about how you approach this shifts.

What Is Parkinson's Law?

Parkinson's Law was first described by the British historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson back in 1955. He observed something that, once you hear it, you'll recognise immediately in your own life:

Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

That's it. That's the whole thing. And it is, quietly, one of the most useful ideas I've ever come across for the practitioners I work with.

What it means in practice: if you have four hours to write a newsletter, it will take four hours. If you have forty-five minutes, it will take forty-five minutes, and it will probably be just as good, if not better, because your focus sharpens when the container is tight. We've all experienced this. The report that took all day when the deadline was tomorrow. The presentation that came together in two focused hours the night before the conference. The blog post (I will not name any names) that sat in a draft folder for three weeks until someone asked when it was coming out.

The 'I'll Find Time' Trap

The reason 'I'll find time' doesn't work isn't laziness or lack of commitment. It's Parkinson's Law working against you. When there's no defined time box for your course, your membership, your book, the work has nowhere to expand into. It remains vague and formless, something to do 'later,' and later never arrives because later has no edges.

Meanwhile, the work that does have edges, your client sessions, your supervision, your admin, your family commitments, expands comfortably to fill every available hour. Not because those things are more important than your dream, but because they have containers and your dream doesn't.

This is where so many brilliant, experienced practitioners get stuck. They have everything they need: the knowledge, the years of experience, the genuine desire to reach more people. What's missing isn't time. What's missing is a container for the time.

The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything

Here's the reframe I want to offer you, and it might feel a little uncomfortable at first, in the best possible way.

You don't find time. You make it. You decide it. You protect it.

A mentor I follow closely puts it beautifully: "Work expands to fill the time you give it." The corollary of that is equally true: work contracts to fit the time you assign it. Give your course two hours on a Thursday morning and close everything else, and something extraordinary tends to happen. It gets done. Maybe not perfectly, maybe not all at once, but it moves forward in a way that three weeks of 'I'll find time' never did.

This isn't a productivity hack. It isn't about hustling harder or squeezing more into your already full life. It's actually the opposite. It's about understanding that the time you've been waiting for was never coming, and the permission you've been waiting for? That was always yours to give.

What This Looks Like in Practice

I'm not going to give you a forty-seven step system here, because that's not how I work and I don't think it's what you need. But I will share a few small shifts that make a real difference for the practitioners I mentor.

Give your idea a slot, not a someday.

Look at your diary this week, not next month, not after the summer, this week. Find one hour that could belong to your online project. Name it. Block it. Treat it with the same respect you'd treat a client session. It has a start time, an end time, and a single focus.

Shrink the task to fit the time, not the other way around.

The mistake most people make is trying to 'write the whole module' in an hour. Instead: what is the smallest useful piece of progress I can make in the time I have? Maybe that's one section of one lesson. Maybe it's your outline. Maybe it's recording a rough audio note so the idea is out of your head and into the world. Parkinson's Law means this will be more than enough.

Stop waiting for clarity before you start.

Clarity comes through doing, not through planning. The practitioners who make the most progress are not the ones who have figured everything out in advance. They're the ones who sit down in their allocated hour and begin, even imperfectly, even with questions still unanswered. The momentum creates the clarity.

A Word About the Inner Work

I want to acknowledge something here, because it would be incomplete not to. For many of the practitioners I work with, the 'I haven't got time' story isn't just a scheduling issue. It's also a protection. If there's no time, there's no risk. The course never gets made, which means it never gets judged, which means the big, quiet fear underneath ('What if it's not good enough? What if no one buys it? What if I put myself out there and nothing happens?') never has to be faced.

That fear is real, and it deserves to be named, not bypassed. Parkinson's Law can hand you the container, but only you can do the inner work of deciding you're worth the time. That you deserve to take up space. That your knowledge and experience are genuinely worth sharing, not as a side project squeezed into the margins, but as a real, central part of your working life.

That's the deeper shift underneath all of this. And it's the one I love working through with practitioners more than any other.

Ready to Stop Waiting?

If this resonates, I'd love to invite you to take one small action today. Not a plan, not a strategy document, just one hour blocked in your diary this week, labelled clearly, belonging to your idea.

And if you'd like some company on the journey of moving your practice online, Start Here: Welcome Home is the free way in. It's a no-card-required taster of The Nest, my membership for practitioners building their online presence, and it's the beginning of a very different conversation about time, permission, and what you're actually capable of building.

You can find it at hummingbirdmentoring.com, and it's waiting for you, whenever you're ready.

FAQ

What is Parkinson's Law and how does it apply to therapists building online?

Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. For therapists, coaches, and practitioners trying to build an online course, membership, or programme alongside a busy client practice, this means that without a defined time container, the building work expands indefinitely into 'later' and never gets done. The solution is not to find more time but to assign specific, protected time to the project.

Why do I keep saying I'll find time to build my online course but never do?

The 'I'll find time' loop is a very common pattern for experienced practitioners. Without a specific slot in the diary, the online project has no edges, so it can't be completed, no matter how motivated you feel in theory. Parkinson's Law explains that work without a time container simply expands to fill the space around it, which means other tasks, sessions, admin, and life take over by default. The shift is to make time rather than find it.

How can I use Parkinson's Law to finally start my online course or membership?

Start by identifying one focused hour this week, not next month, this week, and assign it entirely to your online project. Within that hour, choose the smallest useful task: an outline, one lesson, a rough audio note. Shrink the scope to fit the time, rather than expanding the time to fit the scope. Most practitioners are surprised by how much progress is possible in one focused, uninterrupted hour when it's treated with the same respect as a client session.

Is 'not having time' really just a fear of putting yourself out there?

Sometimes, yes. For many practitioners, the time scarcity story also serves as a protection against the vulnerability of being visible. If there's no time, the course never gets made, which means it never risks failing or going unnoticed. The inner work, naming that fear and deciding you're worth the time anyway, is just as important as the practical scheduling shift. Both are needed.