Latest in big rocks

Get Your Big Rocks In First

For today’s article, I’m going to start off with a timeless story which exemplifies the big idea I’m going to share. I’ve condensed the original story into its key essence, so please read it before continuing on :)

One day a teacher was speaking to a group of students. He pulled out an extremely large jar and set it on a table. Then he produced about a dozen big rocks and placed them, one at a time, into the jar.

When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?”

Everyone said, “Yes.”

“Really?” he asked. “Let’s see.” He pulled out some gravel and dumped them in. He shook the jar, causing the pieces to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He asked the students again, “Is the jar full?”

His class was catching on quickly. “Probably not,” one of them answered.

“Very good!” he replied. He then brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. When he was finished he asked again, “Is this jar full?”

“No!” the class shouted.

“Excellent!” he replied. Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and poured…


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Published Feb 2 2009
Filed: Awareness & Growth, Career & Work, Goals & Success, Healthy Living, Money & Wealth, Productivity & GTD, Relationships, Spirituality
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Is Your Goal Worth 30 Minutes of Your Time Every Day?


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Whenever you are feeling unmotivated, lazy or daunted by a certain goal, just ask yourself this question – Is this goal worth spending 30 minutes every day?

This is actually the application of a strategy known as reframing. By linking the output of your goal with the estimated commitment needed, it gives you immediate clarity on the amount of value you attach to your goal. 30 minutes a day is an easy starting point for many people, even for busy professionals. Just shave that time away from the unproductive activities in your life – the few that comes to mind would be excessive surfing, chatting, watching TV, time spent commuting, etc. Simply cutting out 10 minutes from any 3 random activities will give you 30 minutes.

If you can’t even set aside 30 minutes a day for this goal, it probably isn’t a goal you really desire to begin with. Remove it and stop wasting mental energy thinking about it. However, this is likely not the case though. If a certain goal is constantly a lingering concern in your mind, it is probably something that matters to you. (more…)


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Published Jan 6 2009
Filed: Goals & Success
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Put First Things First

Put First Things First is Habit # 3 of Stephen Covey’s book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Do you put your first things first? Putting first things first means doing to the most important things in life. It means being clear about your priorities and acting on them.

That sounds pretty easy and intuitive, but many people unconsciously fall into the trap of getting caught up in non-important things. They neglect the larger life priorities until it becomes too late to act on them. To become a master of your time, you need to first be aware of your priorities in the larger context of your life. The framework which I will be sharing with you later in this article – Time Management Matrix - (from Covey’s book) is tremendously valuable in helping you achieve that. It will help you structure out your daily activities in accordance of importance and urgency and deal with them accordingly. (more…)


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Published Dec 28 2008
Filed: Awareness & Growth, Goals & Success, Productivity & GTD
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