A New Planner and Rocks!

byHelen123

2K followers

Updated 4 years ago

So why am I buying a new planner in March??

I have had one from the beginning of the year, but have never been happy with it.... its one of these soul searching planners where you fill your hopes and dreams, youtr short term/long term goals.. your weekly/daily/hourly planning.. Boy ! Whilst thats a great thing for some, Im a 'get at it' girl and have not time for such in depth machinations ! There is a huge section every three months where you revisit everything and re-evaluate where you are now.

So Im sure there are some of you that love this sort of thing, and thats great but its not what I was looking for... I wanted essentially a diary, with space for what needs to be done this week, what blog/video titles will be written about and what days/times each of these things will happen.... now whether they actually get done or not is debatable... I get terribly sidetracked at times so writing it down does help.

Well the new diary arrived today... and with it was a story that I had heard before but forgotten and really resonated.... Its me down to the ground and rather fortuitous that it would be in the very planner I bought.

Im sure you have read this story before, its appeared in many forms and its origin is unknown

A philosophy professor stood up in front of his class, with a large glass jar. He filled the jar to the top with large rocks, and asked his students if the jar was full.

They were confident that yes, it was full.

He then added small pebbles to the jar and shook the jar to disperse them amongst the larger rocks, filling in the gaps. He asked again if the jar was full?

The students were again confident that the jar was full!

The professor then poured sand int oteh jar to fill up any remaining space and again the students said the jar was full.

He then took a jug of water and poured it into the jar, watching it get into every last spot in the jar.

The professor explained that the jar is your life.... the rocks are the most important projects and things you do - so your work ( posts, blogging, ads, webinars,) family and health.

Showing that if you lost the pebbles, sand and water, you would still have a meaningful life.

The pebbles are the things in life that matter, but you could live without. They are not critical aspects of your life, and will come and go but are not permanent or essential to your health and wellbeing. Things like hobbies, a house, friendships.

The sand and water are the filler things in your life, material possessions or experiences - watching TV, flicking through social media, going for coffee.. they may not mean much to you, maybe things you automatically do, maybe theyre time wasters.

If you put the sand in first, you cant fit the rocks and pebbles - you cant go through life doing only the small, inconsequential things, otherwise you run out of room for the important things.... this could be likened to me sometimes.. bothering about a planner instead of getting on with the post or the blog... prevarication...

So to be effective and efficient in life, you need to pay attention to the rocks - they are critical to your longterm success and well being.

Do this, and you will always have time for the other stuff !