I’m a HUGE fan of the late Stephen Covey.  His book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” was the first book on time management I read.  Sometimes, even a time strategy visionary like myself can find herself feeling a little frazzled at the end of a day.   When this happens, I return to the basics – Covey’s 7 Habits to determine the adjustments I need to make in my schedule.

This video examines the importance of scheduling our priorities first, then the “little things”. 

Did you notice how many “little things” were in the bucket originally?  Look at your current to-do list, how many of your tasks could be considered “little pebbles”?  What priority do you attach to those items?  What time of the day do you work on those items?

Notice, Stephen Covey didn’t say “toss out some of those little pebbles, they aren’t important”, but he encouraged the volunteer to keep trying to fit it all in.

With strategic planning you can accomplish your BIG rocks and your little pebbles!

How can you take this video – and turn it into action?

  1. Create a list of priorities (vacation, self-care, big projects, family, community . . .)
  2. Schedule time for each of these priorities.  (You decide the frequency – some may be once a day, others once a month, others once a year . . . )
  3. Examine your to-do list for remaining tasks.  Cross off any task that really isn’t a little pebble, but more a piece of sand.  (SO low priority – it’s a wonder how it ever made it’s way onto the list in the first place!)
  4. Chose 2 – 5 of these small priorities to work on each day.  These are scheduled between the BIG rocks, not instead of the BIG rocks.

 

What BIG rocks have you struggled to fit into your schedule lately?  What system have you found successful when scheduling?  What roadblocks have you encountered on the way?  (We aren’t allowed to just go and get a bigger bucket!!)   I’d love to know – please post below! :)