Chapter 5: Rocks, Blocks, Goals, and Clusters. There’s only one way to get all of the rocks, gravel, sand, and water of our lives into the jar that is time—intelligent scheduling. We have to be able to identify which of our activities are rocks and which are gravel, sand, and water. | Rocks Blocks Goals and Clusters One day a time management expert spoke to a group of business students. He set a wide-mouthed one-gallon mason jar on the table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and placed them carefully one at a time inside the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside he asked Is the jar full Everyone in the class answered Yes. Then he asked Really He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work down into the spaces among the big rocks. He asked the group once more Is the jar full now By this time the class was on to him. Probably not one of them answered. Good he exclaimed. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started adding sand to 56 Copyright 2003 by the McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Click here for Terms of Use. Rocks Blocks Goals and Clusters 57 the Jar and it slid into the spaces remaining among the rocks and gravel. Once more he asked the question Is this Jar full No the class shouted. Good he shouted back grabbing a pitcher of water and pouring it into the Jar until it was full to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked What s the point of what IJust did One student raised her hand and replied The point is no matter how full your schedule seems to be if you try really hard you can always fit some more things into it. No the speaker replied. That s not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is if you don t put the big rocks in first you ll never get them all in. There s only one way to get all of the rocks gravel sand and water of our lives into the jar that is time intelligent scheduling. We have to be able to identify which of our activities are rocks and which are gravel sand and water. The number of things we do and the order in which we do them should be determined by the size of the jar. You can t get everything in if you don t .
