The short-term personal solution is to notice what’s happening, which we do thanks to great articles like this one. It’s also important to realize that dismantling Parkison’s law and countering its effects is a long-term, lifestyle decision, there’s no quick-fix.

On the grander long-term scale, the solution is community living.

Drive down a residential street and you’re bound to see rows of houses with great big garages each containing copies of the same sets of tools. Most of the tools spend nearly all of their time sitting around not being used. And at any given time when they are being used, it’s probably not at the same time as the others. What blows my mind is why we haven’t figured out something as simple as the “community garage”.

And that’s just one example of excess resources being swallowed up on a large scale. As we move into leaner times here in North America, I’d expect (nay, hope) to see more people making this kind of “community-level” decision to help down-size their lives. Shared vehicles, shared “garages” (i.e. workshops), shared community spaces for kids (and adults) to play.

At work, I try to limit meetings to a slightly shorter period than I think that it will actually take to accomplish the work.

At home, I try to dangle something more important or fun out in front of finishing a task.

The egg timer is a good idea. I also do the same thing with Roth IRA and savings as you mention. The paycheck comes in the Roth and other savings goes out. No money is left in the checking to spend on anything necessary. If I really need something, I have to make the decision to move it back from savings into checking.