Big Rocks in First | The Art of Manliness

oh hello there Brett mchao from the Art of Manliness calm caught me in the middle of an experiment do you guys ever feel like you're busy all day you're answering email you're just you feel busy but then in the day you feel like you didn't accomplish anything well there's a reason why you feel like that and I'm going to do a little object lesson or experiment to show you why that is we're going to say that this jar represents your life or your calendar or your schedule and the way most people go about their life is they fill it up first with stuff that's not very important and that's going to be represented by this water so this is like surfing the internet checking out reddit checking out BuzzFeed don't do that anymore quit checking BuzzFeed the stuff that adds really no value to your life and then what they do is they do something a little bit more important that has some value but really not much and that's gonna that's represented by this sand so this is you know answering some work email that really could have been answered you know I've done over the phone in five minutes but it's turned into 50 different emails this is like when you're you're doing research on the internet but then you somehow end up back at those time-wasting sites so that's the sand and then we start doing stuff that's you know a little bit more important but not all that important that's represented by this gravel so this could be probably a lot of busy work that a lot of people do alright so it's you know stuff that has some value but not all that much and then you realize man I haven't done anything I've been really busy but I haven't got any work done I got to focus on those really important things so you try to cram those big rocks and those big rocks represent the most important thing in your life it could be things like family could be your health your spirituality it could also be tasks and work or in class that will bring you closer to your goal so you try to cram that in into your calendar or your schedule you'll quickly realize there's no room in your calendar because you filled it up with all this other stuff that's not really important you don't have room for the important stuff but here's the catch with just a bit of rearrangement and some prioritization you would have been able to fit all of the most important tasks your big rocks and all of this into your calendar and schedule don't believe me I'll show you all right so we got a new schedule this time instead of filling up our schedule metaphorical schedule with the dumb stuff first we're gonna put the most important things and put those in first so we're gonna put it the big rocks in now this gonna be different for every person with those big rocks are if you want to be a writer for example you should set aside time to write that be a big rock if you're a dad setting aside time for family time would be a big rock working out exercising would be a big round and you would treat these things basically like a doctor's appointment on your calendar like you would block it off and if someone wants to do something during that time you tell them sorry already got something going on even if that is working out which is whatever is really important you want to make sure that you get done you do you schedule that first then after that you can start putting in some of those filling in the gaps with the stuff that's not really important but just a little bit important things like work emails there yeah of course you'll need to rearrange things sometimes so you did some of the stuff that's not too important but still needs to be done but you still have room you still have time for some of that fun stuff that's just mindless so go ahead after you've done your big rocks then the stuff that's sort of important you can do some a bit of mindless web surfing put some more in there still got plenty of room let it sit through okay and here's the thing there's still room for more maybe probably put more sand in here some more fun stuff that's really heavy we got the water this is just like stuff I don't even know what it's like not important at all all right so as you can see we're able to fit in a lot more including the big rocks and the key was we had to put the big rocks in first so my challenge to you this week is as you sit down with your calendar and plan out your week and if you're not planning I definitely recommend you start doing that find out what your big rocks are what are the most important things that you need to be doing again if you want to be a writer a big rock would be setting aside time for writing if you want to be a musician setting aside time for deliberate practice on whatever instrument is that you're doing would be a big rock family is a big rock health is a big rock at work you're going to have different big rocks they're going to pop up every week the key is though is you do those first do those first and as you do that you're going to find that you're going to be more productive more effective and you'll have time for everything else in life those emails those phone calls those Network meetings it's all going to be able to fit in there but you have to do the big rocks first so that's a challenge to you until next time this is Brett Mackay telling you to stay you

Channel: Art of Manliness

Views: 346,350

Keywords: Art of Manliness, Mens Interest, Mens Style, How To

Id: 0VNmIxkyHd8

Length: 6min 3sec (363 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 23 2014