So, with the coming of the New Year, I’m always thinking about planning. How to make things better, how to get more accomplished, and how to make this year better than last year.
I came across a Stephen Covey quote – if you don’t know him, he’s the guy who wrote a little-known book called “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”
It goes something like this.
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
You can make lists all day of the things you need to get done. Then go through them and put them in order from most important on down. Or, you can decide on the 2-3 real priorities you have and get those on the calendar. Everything else will either fill in around that or not.
Another way he had of saying this (now, I’m working from memory, so it’s close but not perfect) was to talk about the “big rocks.” He used the example of big rocks being the important things and the little pebbles being the minor things.
He would then pull out a glass cylinder. He demonstrated this idea by first dumping the pebbles into the cylinder, then showing how afterwards there was only room left for 1 or 2 of the big rocks.
In the next example, he’d put the 4-5 big rocks into the cylinder first and then dump the pebbles in around them. Surprisingly, you’d fit most of the pebbles and the big rocks in if you did it that way. If you started with the pebbles, though, you were screwed trying to get those important things in.
Look at your calendar for the next month or the next week. What’s on it? Are they the things you most need to get done? Are they your priorities or, even worse, someone else’s? Put in your “big rocks” and start from there.
Study one hour from 6am-7am M-F no matter what.
Get to the gym for 30 minutes 4x a week.
The Final Step for 15 minutes 5x a week.
Get it on there.
Brian Wallace