Toss Some Rocks

A lecturer at a university is giving a pre-exam lecture on time management. On his desk is a bag of sand, a bag of pebbles, some big rocks and bucket. He asks for a volunteer to put all three grades of stone into the bucket. A keen student duly steps up to carry out the task, starting with the sand, then the pebbles, then the rocks, which do not all fit in the bucket. “This is an analogy of poor time management,” trills the lecturer, “If you’d have put the rocks in first, then the pebbles, then the sand, all three would have fit. This is much like time management, in that by completing your biggest tasks first, you leave room to complete your medium tasks, then your smaller ones. By completing your smallest tasks first you spend so much time on them you leave yourself unable to complete either medium of large tasks satisfactorily. Let me show you..” And the lecturer re-fills the bucket, big rocks first, then pebbles, then sand, shaking the bucket between each so that
everything fits.

Reflection

We can all agree that we live in a very fast pace world, if we cannot manage our time, it will manage us and nobody wants to run into that downward spiral. We've heard the famous saying "time is money" but time is far more precious than money… it is priceless and fleeting. If we cannot manage our time effectively, we will loose a whole lot more than just money. We can miss out on our goals, our precious family moments and of course the opportunities that life has on offer for us. Time management is a crucial aspect in our lives and must be taken seriously. It is important to plan and prioritise our activities, to set realistic deadlines for the things we want to achieve. If we allow sand and water issues to fill up our day, then we won’t have anything left to fit in the big important tasks. Of course things 'come up' and we have to redirect our focus from time to time, but having a solid plan of our allocated time will allow us to keep on track achieving the larger, greater
things in life.

This isn't as simple as it sounds, so in the next week or so, take a few minutes in the morning to plan your time, not just at work, but in your personal life too. Allocate your big to small tasks and never put off until later what you can do right now!

May you have an awesome accomplished week!
- Darren Zwiers

"Until we can manage TIME, we can manage nothing else"   Peter Drucker. 

"Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right.' Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along" Napoleon Hill.