Big balls and little balls – which balls to handle first?

Big-balls-and-little-balls.jpg

Do you have To Do lists? Are they a mile long?

Do you love ticking things off? Do you ever get to the bottom of your list?

Do you still seem to miss the IMPORTANT things?

I think I can say YES to every single one of those questions – what about you? I am such an optimist – I always think I can get more done each day than is physically possible! Wouldn’t you love to know how to get all the important things done and tick off your list each day? ME too.

So this is how it goes, imagine you have two glass jars…

In Jar 1, firstly fill it with a bunch of marbles (all the little bits and pieces we do each day) and then with a few golf balls (the big things we need to do each day) and then 1 or 2 tennis balls (the really important things)

Jar1.png

In Jar 2, with exactly the same quantities fill the jar in the opposite order – 1 or 2 tennis balls (really important things), then a few golf balls (big things), then a bunch of marbles (little bits and pieces)

Jar2.png

So what happened? You guessed it, the second jar can fit them all in, and in the first jar the things that get missed are the REALLY IMPORTANT ones. Does this happen to you?

This idea isn’t new, you may have heard of it as Big rocks & Little rocks from Steven Covey. It ‘s been around for ages, but I find that I need to remind myself often to use it – it is so easy to get caught up in the busyness of our day-to-day lives and lose sight of the really important things.
You can put this simple idea into action in many ways; some of these ideas might work for you:

  • Each day or week create a short list of the Big balls that you need to focus on;

  • Use your phone, diary or calendar to keep track of the Big balls and remind yourself regularly;

  • Be careful not to get distracted by the Little balls (they might give you a great sense of satisfaction to tick them off your list – but are they really important?)

  • Become aware of what works for you – each day notice if you were successful at staying focused on the important things – what worked? Why did it work?

  • Each week pick out your top 3 Big balls, use a post-it note to remind yourself daily and stick it on your Laptop screen, bathroom mirror, diary page.

Give one of these a go or try something else that works for you. Let me know if you come up with some other great ideas.

UnlockingU Tips, MindsetMorgan HolmesUnlockingU, Create List, UnlockingU Tips1 Comment