Do you ever start the day with a huge To-Do list; either written or in your head, and with perfect intentions of ploughing systematically all the way through it? But then, somehow throughout the course of the day other things creep in, ebbing away at your time; texts, messages and social media can be the biggest time-suckers. But also requests from others or reactive work is a killer too. Until finally you get to the end of the day and wonder with a heavy heart how in seven or so hours you weren’t able to at least complete the top three most important things on your list. Aaaargh!!!! This is a common problem in our fast-paced digital world. If only we could better master our time then it goes without saying we can better master our lives.
The good news is there are strategies and tips available which can help. Here is just one nice tool called The Jar of Life;
We all have 24 hours in a day (a jar with finite capacity if you like) but how you choose to fill your jar is up to you. You have three things you can fill it with; rocks, pebbles and sand. Each is a metaphor for an area of your life. Crucially, you can fill your jar (your time) in any order you like. But you must stop when the jar is full, and you have run out of time.
- Do you put your rocks in first? That is your friends, family, health; things that money can’t buy?
- Or do you put in your pebbles; that’s the things that matter, but much less than your rocks, such as your job (yes, believe it or not this is a pebble!!), your hobbies, spending time with friends you like less.
- Most importantly when do you put in your sand? This is the very small stuff like social media, text messages, menial tasks and even being mad at people for silly things. The stuff that wastes time.
Can you see where this is going yet? If you choose to fill your jar (your finite 24 hours) with sand first you won’t have any room for your pebbles or your rocks – the really important stuff in your life. So the moral of this lovely little analogy is to fill your jar with your rocks first, then your pebbles, then lastly your sand. And if there isn’t enough room for all of your sand, well hey that wasn’t the important stuff anyway. So the question is… what are you going to put into your jar of life first tomorrow? Rocks, pebbles or sand?
If the idea of mastering your time to master your life has caught your imagination and you, or someone you know, may be interested in learning how to cement this technique into your everyday life then we would love to see you at a one of our monthly workshops in Surrey. Short and sharp (time efficient!) at just two hours and highly interactive, they offer the chance to learn practical tools and techniques to help you plan your limited time more effectively so you can achieve everything you want to both personally and professionally.
Forthcoming dates as follows:
8 Mar: 10am-12pm
27 Apr: 10am-12pm
21 May: 7pm-9pm
6 Jun: 10am-12pm
All workshops are run in Egham, Surrey. Click here for more details and to enrol.