026. 3 Tips to Make Your Most Important Priorities Fit into your Weekly Schedule Part One: What are Your Rocks?

Learn the steps to prioritize your week by planning according to your priorities to increase focus.

Have you seen the demonstration when an empty jar is filled over halfway with sand? Then, someone tries to put another jar almost full of rocks in with the sand?

Does it all fit?

Of course not. There’s no way all of that is going to fit into that jar!

Then, the demonstrator does it in reverse.

The jar that is almost full of rocks is shown first. Then, the jar of sand is poured in over the rocks and miraculously there is room for it all. It may take a bit of shaking, but it all fits.

What does this demonstration teach us?

What does the rocks and sand represent?

You know they gotta represent something.

What’s Most Important to You?

What if the rocks represent things in your life that are the MOST important?

Have you ever really taken the time to figure out what’s most important to YOU?

No, really…when was the last time you thought about what YOU want?

Hey, no judgement. I’m not trying to be Ms. Nosey here. I only ask because I’ve been there. I still find myself falling back there when I don’t really think about it. It’s kind of like a preset comfort zone that we all need to figure out how to reset.

When you know what your priorities are first, you can work in all the other stuff around it.

Those are what I like to call “Rocks”. See where I’m going with this?

Take a minute right now or look at your schedule and decide when you can do this before your head hits the pillow tonight. Make a list of the things that you would call your ROCKS. What are the top priorities in your life?

Your list might look like this: (or maybe not. Don’t be a copy-cat!)

Wife
Mom
Spirituality
Friends
Work
Health

Notice, these are categories, not a to-do list.

Don’t spend one second writing down what you think you should, write what you want.

What feels good to you in your body? When you look at your list, do you feel calm or a bit restless? Move things around until you feel calm. It might take a bit of trial and error, but it will come.

My priority list has adapted here and there but it doesn’t usually make any huge shifts. Big projects may come up that become your priority. No one is looking over your shoulder and trying to be the boss of you. This is all up to you my friend.

Priorities Have Priorities

Did you know that priorities have priorities?

Yes, you need to decide what your #1 priority is. That’s the one thing in your life that you would drop ANYTHING for. Heaven forbid that you ever have a “Sophie’s Choice” moment and have to decide between two very close priorities, we’re not going that deep. Let’s just make ourselves decide what is most important to us and write that down as our #1.

Now it’s time to decide what comes next. Continue down the list you’ve made and put them in order. Maybe some of them get grouped together. Maybe some of them drop off your list. Whatever happens to your list is perfect for you.

Allow Yourself to be Flexible

Please remember that this is never final. You have not etched the Ten Commandments in stone. This is going to take some trial and error to see how this feels to you over the next few weeks. Give yourself permission to be flexible. That’s what’s so great about this method. You’re in charge and isn’t it about time? You’ll know when it finally hits that perfect spot.