Imagine with me for a second a medium sized vase. Next to
the vase you have a pitcher of water, some gravel, some sand, and some big
rocks. You want all of them to fit into the vase. Which one must go in first?
Second? Third? Fourth?
In order to get them all in the jar we must first put in the
big rocks, then the gravel, the sand and finally the water. This is the only
way everything will fit. If we put the water in first the rocks would dispel it.
Similarly if the sand goes in first it would take up a lot of room. If we put
in the big rocks, then fill the cracks with the gravel then pour some sand to
fill in the smaller cracks and finally saturate it with water we get everything
in that we want.
Not this way…
Imagine what would happen if we ordered our list of things
to do this way. If we saw the big things that must be done each day and did
them first, and then moved on to the not so important things. We might actually
get more done.
It’s a different mind set than I had before. I am someone
who likes to check things off my to do list so I would do what was the easiest
or the quickest to do and do it. But I sometimes would leave the things that
were more difficult but needed to be done to the end. Then I would be tired and
wouldn’t bother with them by the end of the day. The next day would roll around
and I would have even more big things to do and would have to add the previous
days things to it.
Stress is what that is called. A receipt for stress is what
this is. I don’t like stress and anything I can do to alleviate it is so
helpful. I really like this illustration of how to order my to do list. Thought
you might to!
