One day, an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students. He pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on the table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one by one, 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 in the class said "yes".
Then he said, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar, causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.
Then he asked the group once more. "Is this jar full?" By this time the class was on to him.
"Probably not," one of them answered. "Good!" he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel.
Once more he asked the question. "Is this jar full?"
"No!" the class shouted. Once again, he said, "Good!" Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim.
Then the speaker looked at the class and said, "The rocks represent the most important things in your life - your children, your spouse, your loved ones, your friends, your education, your dreams, a worthy cause, teaching or mentoring others, doing the things you love, having time for yourself, your health. If you don't get these big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all. If you're always distracted by the trivial issues (i.e. gravel, the sand), then you'll never have the quality time you need to spend on the bigger, more important stuff (i.e. the big rocks).
So what are the big rocks in your life? Put those in your jar first.
Eugine Loh, 938Live, MediaCorp Pte Ltd
