Do you know how to manage your time by prioritizing your values? There is a great story that I heard many years ago about setting priorities and making the most of our time.
Prioritizing your Rocks, Pebbles and Sand
A professor came to class with a jar full of rocks. He asked his students: Was the jar full? They responded yes. But then he put in some pebbles and shook the jar around to make room for them to fill in the spaces. He asked the same question. Is the jar full? Their response was yes, now it is full.
Next he put in sand, moved the jar around some more and continued to fill in all the empty spaces. Now the jar was full no more could be added to the jar no matter how hard he shook it to make room.
If he had put sand in the entire jar he could not have fit the rocks and pebbles. So you need to ask yourself: What do you consider your Rocks, Pebbles and Sand?
Jar
The Jar symbolizes your life. You only have one life and you must ask yourself: What are you going to fill it with? Do you want your life to be big or small? That also is your choice. Don’t let someone decide for you what is important. You are in control of what goes into your jar.
Analyzing your Rocks, Pebbles and Sand
Rocks are your faith, family and health. Without these the rest of life will be difficult to maneuver.
Pebbles are your job, friends, volunteer work and hobbies. These may change throughout your life but are still very important to maintain and enjoy a great life.
Sand my be social media, movies or books. These are the fluff in life. They are enjoyable and fun, but should not be given such a high priority as your family. If you filled your jar with these first how will you possibly fit in the rocks and pebbles?
Managing Your Jar
How do you manage what is in your Jar? Does your Jar in life reflect what you value most? Don’t we all wish we had a little more time each day to get things done that are important to us? While you can’t create more hours in your day you can learn to prioritize what you value to get the most out of our day.
Prioritizing what to put in the jar first, is the same way we need to look at how we live our lives. We all get the same 24 hours each day but it seems that some people get more done than one can imagine. Do they get more done because they have great time management? Or perhaps they know what is most important to them, focus on those priorities first and are more content with their lives when they see their priorities completed.
If we are able to accomplish our top priorities this alone gives us so much reward and will create more drive. Priorities will change from one person to the next as well as change from year to year. We are all on a different journey in life. The variables in your life are your circumstances, talents, careers, families and obligations etc. They are unique to you. Stop comparing your life to some else’s.
24 Hours In A Day
The only constant is that every person has the the same 24 hours in a day to be all that God created them to be. These 24 hrs. are represented as the jar. We must ask ourselves what are the big items that You value? Are you on track to reach your goals for the next year? If not how can you rearrange the priorities in your life to reach them next year?
What will you fill your jar with? Only you can prioritize what you put in your Jar of Life. Truly think about what is most important to You. How will you change your life by rearranging what is in your jar?
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