Mind Management Angela May

BIG ROCKS

This story was told to me in a time management seminar.  It really stuck with me, and I looked around for a good video or summary, but I couldn't find one. So I drew it out really quickly (and I mean REALLY quickly, like over my lunch break kinda thing, so I apologize for that). It's kind of a third-hand story, and it originally belongs to the Highly Effective Stephen R. Covey.

Stephen Covey was giving a live seminar. He stood on stage with a small plexiglass box, half-full with pebbles and sand. Scattered around the stage were bigger rocks, marked with words like "Family", "Career", "Health", "Travel", "Guitar Lessons", "Advanced Degree"...He invited a businesswoman up on stage with him.

He asked her to pick up the big rocks that represented what she would like to have in her life. She walked around the stage and came back with an armful of rocks. Then he asked her to fit all the rocks in the plexiglass box.

She struggled to shove the rocks into the box, but some kept sticking up out of it and the lid would not close. She had to put some of the rocks aside (like taking out "Family" to save "Career"), and after some awkward manipulation she got the box to close.

Steven asked her if she could fit anything else in the box. And the woman said no, it was impossible. 

He then gave her a fresh Plexiglass box and told her to try again. 

She could easily fit all of the big rocks in the box, all the ones she wanted and even one or two extra. He asked "Can anything else fit in the box?" "I don't think so"... He gave her a bucket full of pebbles.

The pebbles, he said, represent the meetings, reports, presentations, doctor's appointments... all the little things that are less important to us but need to get done. He gave her the bucket and she was able to pour the whole thing into the box, they flowed around the big rocks.

"Is that everything?" he asked her again. He gave her a bucket of sand.

The sand are the phone calls, the bus rides, the trips to the grocery stores, the unimportant errands and tasks that we must take care of during the day. She poured the sand into the box and it flowed down, filling in the cracks.

She closed the lid, and it all fit inside.

It is critical that we define our big rocks - the things that are the most important to us, and schedule them FIRST.

DEFEND your big rocks from intrusion - don't let that routine staff meeting take precedent over your 30-minute workout, unless there is another place it can go. Let the small, less important things flow around your priorities, because if you don't, the unimportant tasks that fill your day will dictate your life, and you will just be treading water.