I’m back with Part Two of my Three-part series on Rocks and Sand. If you didn’t listen to Part One, that probably sounds a bit weird. Just go back to Episode 21 and listen to that. Then come back for Part Two.
We’re going to dive a little deeper into the process of discovering your priorities, defining your rocks and scheduling them first. The sand? We’ll talk about that in Part 3.
Have you determined what your rocks are? What have you decided are your top 5 priorities? You will be planning for those first.
All the rest of the “sand” in your life will fill in around them and somehow it all works.
For all you To-Do listers, this is where you get to do your thing. The difference is now you start with your priorities., and the to-do’s come later.
Now is the time to grab your planner. If you’d like to try mine, you can get that at Hunkeedori.Etsy.com. It’s called the Connection Planner and I’ll put a link in the show notes to help you find it.
When you first start this process, you’re going to have things already scheduled on your calendar that aren’t your priorities. That’s OK. Don’t worry about that yet. You’ll need a few weeks, or maybe even more, to work your way completely into this.
As you get more into this method, you’ll feel better about those appointments because you’ll only have them on the calendar if it’s one of your priorities.
But don’t worry if you’re not quite there yet, it will come.
You’re going to start being pickier about what you allow to fill in your days. Before you say yes to things, you’ll find yourself thinking if it falls under one of your top priorities. You’ll be able to honestly say that you need to check your calendar to see if you can do it. It’s a great excuse to slow down a minute and not be a “Yes man” to everything. Or, is being a Yes Woman a thing?
You may see that some of your appointments are already one of your priorities. Good for you! You’re ahead of the game!
Ok, ok, we’ll start scheduling.
Start by looking at the list you made of your priorities. What is your #1? Make a list of all the things you’d like to do this week that fall under that category.
Here’s an example.
Let’s say your #1 is HEALTH.
Make a list of everything you want to do this week to take care of your health.
It may be:
Exercise
Meal Prep
Go to the Farmers Market
Doctor’s appointment
You get the idea.
Take all of your #1’s and put them in your schedule.
As a big time lover of pens, I have assigned each of my priorities a color so I write down all of list #1 in the same color.
I do this so that when I look at my week, I can see how well balanced I am with what I’m choosing to do. Am I spending my best time of the day focusing on my top priority?
Go down your priority list and do this for each one. If you have a to-do that doesn’t fall under one of your categories, maybe you need to re-evaluate if it needs to be on your list in the first place OR, put it in your sand category.
This may feel like a puzzle at first. But I think you’ll be surprised at how your rocks fit in and there is even room left to add in some sand. We’ll talk about that in our next chat.
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
–Stephen R. Covey
-I have a Three-Step Guide that will help you walk through this process, step-by-step, and help you define your rocks and planning your week. I’ve been using this method for years and I’ve written it out to share it with you. You can get it by going to the Shownotes on this podcast or at Hunkeedori.com to get your free download. It’s called 3 Easy Tips to Using Your Time. It’s a written version of what we’re doing here in this series. Go get yours today and meet me back here next week for part 3.
I’d love to hear how it works for you. I’d also love to hear if it doesn’t. I’m open to your feedback and I hope you’ll reply and let me know your thoughts.
– Connection Planner on Etsy. Here’s the link for the Connection Planner on Etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/930894732/