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Rock, Pebble, Sand Time Management
By Tristan Loo

This fundamental concept of time management is far from being new and nothing about this is unique to my teachings, but it’s an important basic concept of time management that needs to be discussed here on this website. I first saw this done at a conference put on by the Franklin Covey Corporation, led by Stephen Covey.

Stephen Covey’s Demonstration
Covey had a table set up upon which there was an empty glass jar and three other jars: one containing large rocks, one containing small pebbles, and the last one containing sand. He then stated that the big rocks represented our most important activities. The pebbles represented our less meaningful activities and the sand represented the activates that waste the most time. He stated that most of us focus our attention on the small things in life and so he dumped the pebbles into the jar. He then asked a person to come up to the stand and fill the empty glass container with all three materials. The secretary that was up there put into the jar the pebbles first and then the sand and tried unsuccessfully to put the large rocks in the glass jar, but they would not fit.

After some general guidance from Covey and a fresh set of supplies, the secretary put the big rocks into the empty jar first and then the pebbles and finally the sand and all three materials fit inside the jar. In fact, in another similar demonstration, the facilitator took it another step and put a jar of water into the container after the sand was poured.

What Does This Demonstration Mean?

I’ll outline what each of the materials used in the demonstration represents in your life:

Empty glass jar: The glass jar in the demonstration is the amount of time available in a typical work week. Now remember that no matter how powerful, famous, rich, or insignificant any of us are, we all have the same sized jars, hence we all have the same amount of time in a given week to get things done. I think that one of the things that we tend to forget is that we have a finite amount of time to work with. By visualizing our time as an empty container, it can help us better understand and more importantly, better fill that container with the things that matter the most.

Large rocks: Now the large rocks represent those activities that matter most in our lives and that have the most profound consequences, either good or bad, that result from their completion or non-completion.

Pebbles: The pebbles are the little tasks that might add up to be something significant, but if we miss one or two, no big deal.

Sand: The sand represents all the non-essential things that tend to fill up our days and our lives. Sand in this demonstration represents wasteful, non-value-producing activities that fill up our jar and prevent us from fitting in the large rocks that are meaningful for our lives.

Water: If we were to add the water to this demonstration, then that could represent the amount of time we spend sleeping.

The 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 rule, also known as Pareto’s Principle, states that 80% of your given results come from only 20% of your actions. Across the board, you will find that the 80/20 principle is pretty much right on with most things in your life. For this website, 80% of the web traffic that visits this website comes from only 20% of all the inbound links to this site. In the case of the rock, pebble, sand demonstration, your biggest rocks are the big players that produce the most results in your life. The pebbles, while they might add up to be a lot, do not amount to very much individually.

Now for the greater majority of people who can’t seem to get things done, or who are always complaining that they do not have enough time, it really comes down to analyzing where you are spending your time on. Are you focusing in on the 80% of activities that produce 20% of the results in your life, or are you spending your time with the 20% of activities that result in 80% of your results. In most cases, you will find that people spend their time with the pebbles in their lives and ignore the larger rocks that are truly important.

From Theory to Practice

The purpose of the rock, pebble, sand demonstration is to teach people how to structure their given week to maximize efficiency. It’s a top-down model of time management that I’ve adopted myself and that works very well at going from a large view of your life purpose, down to the upcoming week and the actions that need to be taken to reach those goals.

Review your values: Before you begin to schedule your week, take time to review and update if necessary all your values and your life purpose. This reminds you who you are and what you stand for and more importantly, what your mission is in life.

Select your goals: Select the goals that you wish to work on this week and break those goals into the “big rocks” that you will place onto your schedule to get done. Remember that your goals need to be congruent with your values in order for them to possess any meaning.

Schedule external events: On your day planner, you need to schedule all the commitments, meetings, appointments and obligations that you have no control over. This will help you navigate your other priorities around those blocks of time.

Schedule “YOU” time: Your biggest rock is of course time to yourself so that you stay healthy and vibrant for the week. If you don’t schedule time for yourself, then by default, I can almost guarantee that you will be left out of the jar when everything else is put in.

Insert your big rocks: Now after doing those things, you want to block off time enough to get those big rocks out of the way. Either make those big rocks a top priority, or if it is a multi-day process, then block off chunks of time by making a no-interruption appointment with yourself.

Let the pebbles fill the gaps: With your big rocks in place, you can fit those smaller activities into your jar to fill up the gaps. Realize that some of those pebbles might not fit in to your given week, but since they are small pebbles and not the big rocks, you can afford to allow them to carry over to the next week.

By using this technique, you can maximize the efficiency that you have each week.

Copyright © Tristan Loo. All rights reserved.

http://www.synergyinstituteonline.com/detail_article.php?artid=319

CAUSES

1. Starting the day without an action plan.
The most important thing in time management is doing things right and not doing it fast.
The latter just results in not achieving anything. It is best to have a specific goal for the day.
What do you want to accomplish? How will you go about accomplishing those things?
Begin doing when the day begins so you can attain your tasks by the end of the day.

2. No stability in life.
It is said that life is comprised of seven important areas.
These are family, health, intellectual, financial, professional, social and spiritual.
As a student, you cannot spend equal amounts of time to all these things.
There may be some areas where you need to focus more on a certain day and other areas for a different day.
All these areas are related to each other.
One cannot work properly without being dependent on some.
That is why you need to balance your time in these different areas to be more stable and at peace.
It may seem difficult initially to adjust your time in all the areas of your life.
But you can attend to all areas if you plan your time properly.

3. Untidy and chaotic study area.
Ever noticed that when there are a lot of things around you, you get distracted easily?
Not only you lose your concentration and your mind starts drifting away from work, you lose the enthusiasm and feel sad about studying.
Compare this to a clean and arranged area. You will not feel buried among the mess and you can focus on the task at hand.
This is the same reason that office workers are effective.
You do not see any mess lying around their work station much.
They maintain a clean and cluster free environment so it will be easy to move around without any distractions.
This same principle should be applied to your study area.

4. Not enough sleep.
According to studies, almost 75% of most students are constantly complaining of being tired easily.
Some even get tired even before the day is finished.
It is not that they lack any sleep.
A few are even disciplined enough to get the 8-10 hours sleep that is needed.
What is lacking in them is quantity and quality sleep.

5. Procrastination
Students tend to procrastinate their work.
One example: Students tend to wait for the “right” mood or the “right” time to tackle the important task at hand.
This is downright a waste of time, it is just an exuse for that they are yearning to procrastinate.
However, the big task isn't going to go away – truly important tasks rarely do.
Furthermore, in the end, they have to rush through their work at the eleventh hour.

Time Management Tips

Time management tip 1: Learn to say No
Some people engage in so many activities and overload themselves that they wind up not enjoying them as much and feeling overburdened by them.
Because of guilt, concern for what others think of us, or a real desire to engage in that activity, we have a hard time saying ‘no’.
In this case, finding out where we will be able to get the most value is important.
We should focus on tasks that fulfill this principle first before moving on to the next, less rewarding activity.

Time management tip 2: Prioritizing
– You know what is the most important task to complete from the "to do" list you made.
Try to prioritize the activities you want to achieve.
Similar to daily "to-do" list, you can also make a list of goals you want to achieve in life.
Put your most important goal in life on top of your priority and your least important goals to down below on the list.
Now, adjust your planner so that your activities match with your goals.
It is also important that you should be realistic on your list, try to base your list on what you need to achieve and not on what you want to achieve.
If you have a long-term priority, it is probably best that you put it on the bottom of your list; you can always work on that tomorrow.

Time management tip 3: Evaluate tasks once
Many of us open our mail, read through it, and set it aside to act on later.
For example, if you receive a questionnaire from some graduate student doing research on stress, your usual tendency is to put the questionnaire aside and fill it out later.
However, that is a waste of time.
If you pick it up later, you will have to, once again, familiarize yourself with the task.
As much as possible, look things over only once.
That means, when you first pick it up, be prepared to complete working on it then.

Time management tip 4: Delegate, delegate
When possible, get others to do those things that need to be done, but that do not need your personal attention.
Conversely, avoid taking on chores that others try to delegate to you.
A word of caution: this advice does not mean that you use other people to do work you should be doing, or that you do not help out others when they ask.
You should just be more discriminating regarding delegation of activities.
Do not hesitate to seek help when you are short on time and overloaded.
Help others only when they really need it and you have the time available.

Time management tip 5: Make a schedule
Allot enough time to do each task on your priority list, according to importance.
If a certain activity needs to be done at a certain time frame, then list it first on your schedule and work the less important tasks around it.
Make sure you stick to this schedule you created.

Time management tip 6:Set goals everyday
– Before you sleep, list down all the things you want to accomplish on the next day.
This will help you to know what you are going to do and avoid doing unimportant tasks.
With a “to do” list, you will get everything done more efficiently and faster.

Time Management tip 7:Use your spare time
– You may not notice it but you have lots of spare time as a high school student.
Try to add up the minutes of the school bus ride to school and the school bus ride back home.
You can use these times to study and do your homework.
By doing this, you will get an idea on what you need to do on your homework when you get home.
This allows you to finish your homework faster and have extra time for other things.

Time Management tip 8: Finding the right time
– Students have the “right time” to study. Students have specific time to study more efficiently.
For example, you solved your math problems well on afternoons; do not wait until nighttime to it, then.
When your mood shifts immediately start solving math problems as much as you can before you lose interest.

Time Management tip 9:Taking notes
– Writing down important notes is an effective way to study.
It is much better than just plain reading.
Writing down notes has an effect on your mind.
You can understand the topic more effectively and memorize it more effectively than by just reading.

Time Management tip 10:Get enough sleep
– Trying to stress yourself out studying when you are supposed to be sleeping can bring ineffective results and unwelcome health problems.
If you need to sleep you have to sleep, do not force yourself to study if you cannot effectively study.
If you try to study in this situation, you will most likely waste your time.

Time Management tip 11:Get it over!
If you are putting something off because you just don't want to do it, and you really can't delegate the work to someone else, you need to find ways of motivating yourself to get moving. The following approaches can be helpful here:

Make up your own rewards. For example, promise yourself a piece of tasty flapjack at lunchtime if you've completed a certain task.

Ask someone else to check up on you. Peer pressure works! This is the principle behind slimming and other self-help groups, and it is widely recognized as a highly effective approach.

Identify the unpleasant consequences of NOT doing the task such as the punishment of not doing homework, etc.
Though, if you find the project overwhelming, this may be helpful:

Break the project into a set of smaller, more manageable tasks. You may find it helpful to create an action plan.

Start with some quick, small tasks if you can, even if these aren't the logical first actions. You'll feel that you're achieving things, and so perhaps the whole project won't be so overwhelming after all.
In this way, you may not find it that overwhelming. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Above tips should assist you in improving your time management skills and make your journey through school life more enjoyable. Keep faith in yourself and your abilities to meet your goals.