We live in a world where everyone is busy but not necessarily productive on the things that matter.
This describes my life for more years than I’d like to admit…not all that different from admitting why you’re really reading this blog post 🙂
I may not be the most productive person in the world, but I’m light years ahead of where I was previously.
During the pandemic, a mastermind event I was supposed to attend in person became a virtual event. I spent 16 hours in Zoom workshops with 50 other gym owners from all over the country.
We went through a number of thought provoking exercises over the 2 day workshop.
However, our last exercise is by far my personal favorite as this helps me gain incredible clarity and get my rocks off my to-do list.
Chances are you’ve heard this story before. I urge you to read this again to see how we applied the concept.
Rocks, Pebbles, & Sand
A high school teacher stood before his class with some items in front of him.
When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks about two inches in diameter.
He then asked the students if the jar was full.
They agreed that it was full.
So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar.
He shook the jar lightly and watched as the pebbles rolled into the open areas between the rocks.
The professor then asked the students again if the jar was full.
They chuckled and agreed that it was indeed full this time.
The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.
The sand filled the remaining open areas of the jar.
The rocks are the truly important things.
The pebbles are the other things that matter.
The sand signifies the remaining “small stuff”. If you put sand into the jar first, there is no room for the rocks or the pebbles.
If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you’ll never have room for the things that are truly important.
During our workshop, we applied this concept to our respective businesses and defined “rocks” as projects that would require significant effort but could be accomplished within 3 to 4 months.
We then took 15 minutes to perform a “brain dump” of all the projects we wanted to implement within our businesses.
From there, we went through the process of “Kill, Keep or Combine” to reduce our priorities to the 3 to 5 rocks that if completed, would leave us happy with our progress if all other projects weren’t completed.
Having to present your final rocks to the group provides excellent feedback and leaves you with amazing clarity on what needs to get done.
Now it’s my job to get my rocks off my to-do list.
Hopefully you can use this exercise to gain clarity and increase productivity in some area of your life.
