In the story, some professor guy (I think) stands at the front of a class, with a big jar. In the jar, first of all he puts some big rocks, and asks the class, "Is it full now".
Mostly they say, "Yes".
Then he gets some smaller rocks and these fit in quite nicely too, just between the big rocks. Again, he asks the same question, "Is it full now?"
The group, a little more suspicious say, "Yes", because it seems to be.
He then gets out a bag of sand and surprise, surprise, those tiny grains of sand squeeze down beside the smaller rocks, filling up the tinier spaces. "Full?", he asks.
"Sure", say the increasingly dubious bunch of students in the audience.
Finally, trump card is the water, smaller than sand, of course and finally, as we aren't getting too sub-molecular about it, the jar is full.
Impressive huh?
The professor then asks,
"What's the moral of the story?"
Of course the class, thinking they've spotted the trick here, say,
"You can always squeeze a bit more in"
A standard and pretty smart reply. The professor, however, is a step a head (all that professorism does it, of course!).
"The moral of the story is that you need to get your big rocks in first, or all that other 'stuff' gets in, way too soon and takes up all the space."
Cool story?
The point of course, relates to managing your time.
What are your 'big rock' things?
Well, for sure it isn't all the little jobs you do. All the fire-fighting (or it may be in the short-term, but that is another day).
The trick is to create spaces, ring-fenced, as they say, to do the good stuff.
In business, this is a list something like this:-
1. Planning for the future 2. Time with your people - good, focused one-on-one time preferably 3. Coaching your people in their work 4. Developing others around you 5. Delegating constructively 6. Creating Succession Plans 7. Building relationships 8. Developing new business opportunities 9. Fixing problems once and for all 10. Making time for a life outside the business
There are more!
Covey and his big rocks eh?
He calls them Quadrant Two activities. If you don't spend time putting these first into your schedule, truth is, you will never fit them in and things will never evolve and grow.
This is really very simple reasoning. Basically, time management is about getting more out of your time and improving the quality of your life. It is much more than just managing one's time. It is also about managing one's life in relation to time. Most people tend not to be good at time management. The problem is that this is the one skill people need badly. If you cannot master time, you cannot succeed in life. Period. Where time management is concerned, it is also largely activity management. In my opinion, I think this is life management itself. Think about it, the reality is that wasting time means wasting your life.
The good use of time i.e. time management is the foundation of good personal and professional habits. This has to be a conscious decision by you - to decide what are the things that are important to you, and then planning your time and life around these things. If you are in a job that requires you to juggle so many tasks and responsibilities every day, good time management is absolutely vital to your success. Each person starts the day with twenty four hours - that's it. What each person can achieve within these twenty four hours depends very much on how he manages his priorities. What are these priorities? They can be anything in the areas of financial, family, physical fitness and health, social interaction etc.
An important consideration for effective time management is finding regular times in your day when you can work uninterrupted. Do remember that perfect time management is not a realistic expectation. Effective time management requires us to actively clarify our priorities. This brings about peace and balance to your life. It is not necessarily about working "harder", but rather, "smarter". It is about getting yourself organized and being aware of what is important to your life. It is simply based on an attitude and the choices you make.
For the majority of the population, poor time management is often the main hurdle to their success in life. Ineffective time management is mostly due to the wrong beliefs and the attitude taken by the individual. No matter what your definition of success is, time management is at its core. Time has never stood still for anyone, and never will. This means effective use of time is absolutely essential. This is one of those things we would all like to master; and really use the hours in our days more efficiently. It is not impossible - but it does take time to really get the hang of it.
To conclude this article , here is a principle you can use for effective time management... Seize the Day! - "Carpe Diem"!
Both Martin Haworth & Andrew Chan are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Martin Haworth has sinced written about articles on various topics from Finances, Interview Questions and Team Building. ?2006 Martin Haworth is a Management Coach. He has more at his website, . Martin recommends. Martin Haworth's top article generates over 3350000 views. to your Favourites.
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