How to Get a Grip on Your Schedule – The Three Big Rock Laws
A person who has a grip on their schedule has a grip on their life.
Cramming more activities into less time is like walking on marbles. Running from one thing to the next means your life is frantic and shallow.
Your relationship with time reflects your relationship to life.
The secret to getting a grip on your schedule is serving the Big Rocks.
Big Rock Laws:
#1. Always focus on the Big Rocks. The Big Rocks are the most important things.
There are only two big rocks.
#2. Forget about the small rocks.
#3. Always live by law #1.
To-do lists:
A long to-do list is the sign of a shallow life. You either check things off quickly or you feel overwhelmed. In both cases you’re juggling small rocks.
The seduction of small rocks is they are completed quickly.
Why small rocks are deadly:
Small rocks are like magic hats filled with rabbits. You pull one out and another one appears. Small rocks multiply.
How many times have you ended the day wondering what you got done?
Reality Check: The Two Big Rocks
The first Big Rock is taking care of yourself. Take care of your body, soul, and spirit.
The second Big Rock is taking care of others. First, take care of the people you love; others follow.
Warning: Small rocks love to pretend they are big.
The Big Rock Laws are helpful, but they aren’t THE secret. There is no secret!
There are a million small ways to serve the two Big Rocks. You’re back to the problem of a magic hat full of rabbits.
You can only do a TINY fraction of all the things that could be done. Accept your limitations or you’ll always be dancing on marbles while juggling small rocks.
How might people get a grip on their schedule?
What’s on your to-don’t list?
Further exploration: Put in the Big Rocks
One of my hobbies is counted cross-stitch. I keep a small project at work, and stitch during my lunch break. Not only am I less tempted to cut my lunch short to get back to the pebbles pretending to be boulders, but other folks are less tempted to interrupt my lunch break with their pebbles they think are boulders.
Thanks for adding your insight, Jennifer. Wonder.
Dan, I enjoy your counter-culture perspectives on time management. The too-busy person is arrogant to think they can keep stuffing items on the to do list. You’re asking us to focus on our foundations – personal wellbeing, our families and work teams next. It’s amazing how much maintenance it takes to keep foundations healthy! We shouldn’t skimp on that work. From there all else flows. I’m working in a company that prizes speed in all things. You’re message helps counterbalance: high quality foundations are the prize.
I love this message, especially at this time of year. People associate a calm and organized person with unproductive, when it is the other way around. I love checking things off the list as much as anyone, but I love even more when I feel like a big task has been accomplished. Thanks for the reminder to slow down and get actual rocks taken care of!
Take care of yourself. Take care of others. This is the reminder on aircraft. Put on your own oxygen mask first, then help others. Impossible to help others if I have no margin or capacity. This is what it means to love one’s neighbors, to give and be spent for them. But I can’t do that from a position of personal deficit – either financial, physical, emotional, or spiritual. Thanks!
I guess the best thing I can say is after many years of moving the “rocks” around I’ve found a system to organize them. I do as you’ve noted and put the big rocks first but I display the Little ones in plain view. If i can move the little ones to others who have the time I do so otherwise the little ones are still there and I stare at them many times whilst working away at the larger ones. I find I’m able to mostly bite away at the smaller rocks but they are prioritized after the big ones. Now that I have my organization down I control my work effort better and I don’t overload myself. In fact I find myself usually so far ahead of blasting those pesky rocks to pieces I’m able to squeeze in any wandering new big ones. Its a liberating feeling to be in such control and out ahead of everything.