Stephen Covey, perhaps best known for the bestselling The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
He showed the audience a large glass bowl, a pitcher of sand, and a container of rocks. The bowl represents our time and energy on any given day. The rocks represent the important work we need to do, the work that has the power to transform our lives and our practices. The sand represents the urgent–and often unimportant–matters we attend to day to day, like going to meetings, returning email, running errands. And blogging, if you don’t play your cards right.
He poured the sand into the large glass bowl. There was a wee bit of room left, so he tried to add the rocks. A few fit, but most didn’t. The glass bowl, in that configuration, represents the way too many of us navigate our days. The Important is hijacked by the Urgent.
He emptied the large glass bowl and began again. This time, however, he added all the rocks first. Then he poured in the sand, which sifted into the nooks and crannies between the rocks. Everything fit, with but a few grains of sand left over.
The glass bowl, in the second configuration, is the image of an effectively mastered day: The Important gets first attention and there’s still space for the Urgent. And, as you’ve no doubt experienced, the Urgent that doesn’t fit probably wasn’t Urgent at all…just filler.
If you’re serious about building a thriving mediation practice, it makes sense not to sacrifice the Important for the Urgent, over and over. So what will you do to make a thriving practice your priority?
Copyright © 2007 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.
Photo credit: Vince Petaccio
Tammy, to get this right I need a couple of steps that keep me on track otherwise the urgent still has opportunity to “take over.” I write down task for the day and then I put numbers in front to prioritze. I put these in my daily planner with time frames next to them. I’ve learned that if I use a time clock to stick to that it pushes me faster and I keep better focus as well. I have any undones there to see next day so they are not overlooked.
Great post!
Hey there, Robyn, I hope all is well with you! Your tips for helping keep yourself on track are good ones, as yours always are. I do something pretty similar: I identify 2-3 key goals for the day, then create a task list like yours. It does help stay grounded. I don’t do the time clock part, but have read that a lot of folks find that approach really useful.
Thanks for adding to the conversation!