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| Still Bay Rock Pools - Photo Melissa Mead |
MMinP: A friend of mine once told me the story about the big rocks and the little rocks. (Hey.. - April Draft Idea!!) Okay - back to YES/NO. A few years ago I was struggling to "do it all". So my friend gave me this story about how you've got big rocks (priorities) and little rocks (all the little stuff -like grocery shopping) and you have to put them all in a jar. Now if you put in the little rocks first you can't fit in all the big ones. But - if you put in all the big rocks first, all the little ones will fit. (This comes from a popular motivational speaker whom I do not know his name because my friend couldn't recall - please if you know leave it in the comments and I will edit this post!)
It's been a few years, like I said, but I still can't get all my rocks in even if I shake the heck out of my jar. I've got a new policy this year. I made a notebook of goals. I broke the goals down into month size pieces. I put the notebook away on a shelf I walk past a million times a day. I look in it at the beginning/end of the month to check what's done what to push into the next month etc. I sometimes check in the middle of the month to remind me what I can do in the small moments.
Doing this has really helped me prioritize and see just HOW full my jar is. I think everybody wants a bigger jar or maybe we want less rocks. Either way my goal book helps me say NO to more rocks and YES to what is important to me. I'm the only one who can say "no" to more small rocks and "YES" to the rocks that rock my world!
How do you fit all your rocks in? (mine fall out sometimes :D)
Wow, we must be on the same wavelength this year. Only difference is I put my goals on my desktop and keep the document open all the time. It's amazing how much it has helped me keep my priorities (rocks) straight!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant Julie! I have to put mine in hard copy so I can draw all over it, (and I live where we have power outs.) Thank you so very much for sharing.
DeleteOh what a wonderful way to visualise the time problem! I once read a trick that works for me: keep a list of 20 to-do-tasks, most urgent on top. Then work only on the tasks in the bottom of the list. It works because the bottom tasks are the ones you like to do most and liking a task makes one superfast so in general you get more done. The top tasks are there on the top because you've postponed them, they are things you don't like. If uou let them pass their deadline without getting them done, no one is going to ask you for them again :)
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