There's a story about rocks and priorities that reminds us how to make room for the most important things in our lives. Rocks, pebbles, and sand represent our priorities (rocks = biggest, pebbles = medium, sand = lower priorities). If you begin filling a jar with sand, you'll have no room for rocks, thereby neglecting/dishonoring your highest priorities. The volume of the jar is finite and therefore, we must be careful to fill it mindfully.
'Ruthless prioritization' is a practice I've grown comfortable with, particularly in my work. I will never get it all done! Knowing my priorities and accepting some things will fall on the floor (or must be handed off!) is critical to managing the finite time I have. In keeping with the jar story, I better know how to distinguish rocks from sand or risk spending precious time on the wrong things.
Last week, I found myself thinking about the jar differently. It still represents the constraint of time. The rocks are my big projects and the pebbles are meetings and other tasks. If you put those rocks and pebbles in the jar, it's full - right? Nope. There's still room for sand. In my quest to get as much done as possible and waste no time, I love the space for sand!
Sand gets poured into the jar between meetings, driving in the car, at the doctor's office in the waiting room. Cancel a subscription, respond to an email or Slack, do a quick social post... I keep a running list of tasks handy (and prioritized!) so when a few minutes present themselves, I can knock something off the list quickly.
Filling the jar is always easy. Filling it mindfully takes practice. Do you find yourself struggling with priorities? Or wishing you had more time? Think about the jar, the rocks, the pebbles and of course, the sand. Sit with your priorities and reflect on how you're spending your time. Are they aligned? Work on progress, not perfection.
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