The Big Rocks Anonymous One day an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget. as he stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers, he said, “Okay, time for a quiz.” he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouth mason jar and set it on the table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?” Everyone in the class said, “Yes.” “really?” he said. he reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar, causing pieces of gravel to work them- selves down into the space between the big rocks. he asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?” By this time, the class was on to him. “Probably not,” one of them answered. “Good,” he replied. he reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. he started dumping the sand into the jar and it went into all the spaces left be- tween the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, “Is the jar full?” “No,” the class shouted. Once again he said, “Good.” he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, “What is the point of this illus- tration?” One eager beaver raised his hand and said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try re- ally hard you can always fit some more things into it!” “No,” the speaker replied, “that is not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is that if you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”
Posted on: Tue, 04 Jun 2013 19:32:48 +0000
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