Time Management - Marc Mancini

Rocks, Blocks, Goals, and Clusters 57
the jar and it slid into the spaces remaining among the
rocks and gravel. Once more he asked the question, “Is
this jar full?” “No!” the class shouted.
“Good,” he shouted back, grabbing a pitcher of water and
pouring it into the jar until it was full to the brim.
Then he looked up at the class and asked, “What’s the
point of what I just did?”
One student raised her hand and replied, “The point is, no
matter how full your schedule seems to be, if you try really
hard, you can always fit some more things into it.”
“No!” the speaker replied. “That’s not the point. The truth
this illustration teaches us is, if you don’t put the big
rocks in first, you’ll never get them all in.”
There’s only one way to get all of the rocks, gravel, sand, and
water of our lives into the jar that is time—intelligent scheduling.
We have to be able to identify which of our activities are rocks
and which are gravel, sand, and water.
The number of things we do and the order in which we do
them should be determined by the size of the jar. You can’t get
everything in if you don’t consider the big things first. Every line
in your organizer need not be completely filled with minutiae.
But you do need to take priorities into account when scheduling
and consecrate blocks of your time for tasks that must fit into
your day. This chapter will discuss things that deserve those
sacred segments of your time.
Establishing Goals
Ask some truly successful people what accounts for their
achievements and you’ll often hear this answer: goals. Indeed,
clear goals are the fulcrum on which all prioritizing turns. To set
goals is worth a good block of your time. Without goals your
time will be aimless.
But what kinds of goals? What must goals be?
• Attainable. Successful people set goals that are ambitious