What are the big rocks?

I’m sure most of you have heard of “The jar of life — Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand” story.

If you have not, or need a quick refresher, here you go...

The original story
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A philosophy professor once stood before his class with a large empty jar. He filled the jar with large rocks and asked his students if the jar was full.

The students said that yes, the jar was full.

He then added small pebbles to the jar and asked again, “Is the jar full now?”

The students agreed that the jar was indeed full.

The professor then poured sand into the jar and asked again.

The students then agreed that the jar was finally full.

The professor went on to explain that the jar signifies one’s life.

The rocks are equivalent to the most important things in your life, such as family, health, and relationships. And if the pebbles and the sand were lost, the jar would still be full and your life would still have a meaning.
The pebbles represent the other things that matter in your life, such as your work, school, and house. These things often come and go, and are not permanent or essential to your overall well-being.
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And finally, the sand represents the remaining small stuff and material possessions in your life. These things don’t mean much to your life as a whole and are likely only done to waste time or get small tasks accomplished.

The metaphor here is that if you start with putting sand into the jar, you will not have room for rocks or pebbles. This holds true for the things you let into your life too.

If you spend all of your time on the small and insignificant things, you will run out of room for the things that are actually important. So in order to have a more effective life, you should prioritize important things in your life and then worry about pebbles and sand at a later time.

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But there is another side to this story. If you actually put it into practice both in your personal and professional life you'll realized this — if you always try to focus on the most important things or goals in your life, then you will procrastinate the other tasks that seemed a lower priority. And then over a period of time, these lower priority tasks would start piling up. And the more you delay taking care of these tasks, the more inertia it built up to complete those tasks.

The most harmful side effect of delaying lower priority tasks is, the longer the list of such lower priority tasks grows, the more stress it starts adding to your daily routine.

The problem with focusing primarily on the most important things is — since they’re the most important things in your life, they also may take longer to complete and more bandwidth to accomplish. And because you’re constantly swamped up with the most important things, you would never get to the lower priority things in your life.

So at some point, you need to pause, decided to stop following this mantra of prioritizing the most important things first. It is a balance, the jar only holds so much.  What rocks need to go in and which ones can be moved to your horizon for later? Some days, you will start taking care of the lower priority tasks first. This way, as the day starts, you would check off a few things off your plate, and then in the second half of the day, you would work on the important tasks.

The benefit of taking care of a few lower priority tasks first is — it starts to build momentum. There is a sense of achievement and progress. And that momentum will actually help you to work on the important and difficult tasks with a much more positive mindset.

So instead of following the rocks, pebbles, and sand story blindly - remember to pause, define what rocks you have, and fill your jar with only rocks first, and then pebble, etc., you could fill it with few rocks, then few pebbles, then some sand, and then again few more rocks, pebbles and more sand. This way you’re making balanced progress in all areas.  Rocks are not flexible but if you make an annual plan for the BIG rocks [possibly only 4] will be in your jar this year, and then monthly plan for the medium rocks [oh, yeah that would be 12 or one each month...] then daily pebbles [those you can do by the handful] and lastly the hourly sand [and remember this is NOT quicksand...] you have chosen these rocks and sand - be grateful for each one, and then decide where they fit in layers, at a healthy pace, and enjoy this gritty, wonderful life.

And when you achieve your very own unique working balance you also realize there is still more space in your jar and you give back, that is pouring the water in... Congratulations! Your perspective is the path to find what works best for you.