Big Rocks and Little Rocks
I know most of you have heard the illustration about big rocks and little rocks…the one where you have to put in the big rocks first in order to get all the little rocks in with them.
This past month, I had several major projects that came due. This was the culmination of several things that I had put months of work into, and they were all coming due at once.
Needless to say, it was crunch time.
The challenge for my system in this is the fact that I have a lot of little transactions to deal with that come in daily. So if I focus on them first, they tend to consume enough time that I get pinched to get productive work done on the bigger projects. However, those daily transactions cannot be ignored, obviously. So what do I do to make sure it all gets done?
I have to make sure I take care of the big rocks first…then fit the little rocks around the big ones.
First off, and I have written about this before, I make sure I block off time on my calendar (or make an appointment with myself) to make sure I devote undivided attention to both the big things and the little things. The key here is to make sure to limit your distractions. You want as much focused time as possible. Make sure your email either has its notification functions turned off, or is off altogether. You might even want to ignore the phone or take it off the hook. Also, turn off all IM software…or go to a “Do Not Disturb” status. You are not ignoring your customers. And if you properly manage expectations (a topic for another post), this will not be a problem for them.
It is also important to stick to your appointments with yourself. Obviously, there are times that demand adjustment to accommodate the unexpected. However, this should be the exception, and not the rule. You should do all you can to control your workflow. Don’t let your workflow control you if at all possible. When you are up against a deadline, workflow control is more important than ever.
Fortunately, I made all of my major deadlines. This month does not appear it will be as crazy for me. But remember, when you are in a crunch…frame your time for success, limit distractions, and keep a tight control on your workflow.
- Jason
I have been having a similar experience the last few weeks. My client load doubled, and I am now responsible for all results for those clients. On top of that, I am developing a better data tracking and organizing system for our company and developing new ways to meet the client needs. The little necessary things can drag on if I start with those, so I try to get enough of the big things in to put a bit of pressure on myself to do the little things in a better time frame.
Wow, did this entry stop and get me thinking! It seems an amazing confluence of information has come together for me over the past few months…and, this post pulled a lot of the “oh, I knew that” together.
It’s one of those “BFOs” we experience from time to time…
http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/BFO
Personally AND professionally, I have been experimenting with building time in each day for the BIGGIES while ensuring that from time-to-time I engage with the other “stuff” that has got to be done.
Here’s what I find as my own magic number:
At the end of the day, make a list (yeah, I actually write it down!) of what I did. This acknowledgment of completion exercise is something I’ve done for years…I learned it from a mentor in college, who had me plan for what I was GOING to do, as well as stop to acknowledge what I DID.
Good stuff…
Good point made here, I sometimes struggle in prioritising my tasks and generally try to avoid unimportant tasks but it is hard work:-) Making appointments for yourself is a good idea however you have to be committed to getting tasks done and avoid procrastination as much as possible, However this is easier said than done.
Ps: I like the way you mention the reading time for each article, very helpful:-)
X
Hello Michael, I can see that you’re not posting that often, but I’d like to know if you’d looked at the new (first) issue of the Productive Magazine with your article in it?
http://www.ProductiveMagazine.com
Congrats on meeting your goals.
Even though the Big Rocks vignette is dated – I first saw it in Covey’s 7 Habits book – I still use it in presentations because people find the concept so helpful.
Thanks for a useful post.
I think this great idea – to schedule appoitment to yourself. I did it the last year, but I failed to protect it.
Once my group members and my manager knew that this is not a “real” appoitment they started to use this time slot for meetings with me.
How I tell them (in assertive way) no to take my time ?
– Ziv
what happened to this site? are you no longer posting?
I’ve been using a version the the Big Rocks system for a while now.
I find it very helpful (and I don’t know if you do this) to not add an end time to a specific appointment. I only add a start time and take as much time as I need to get the task done.
If the time ends up running into another appointment, I reschedule to finish it. If I finish early, I focus on the little rocks until my next appointment.
Focus, focus, focus. If we are not able to concentrate on our work, to schedule accurate all the task and to fulfill them in the proper order i guess we will cannot name ourselves “productive”.
You got it wrong. Getting the little rocks in isn’t the problem. You put all the big rocks in first so you can get all the big rocks in!
One thing I always find that helps is to unplug myself from the internet when I’m not using, so I don’t get tempted to ‘just look something up on wikipedia’
You are so right about doing the big rocks first. Many of the top productivity gurus talk about this and it is very important. I like the way Brain Tracy says it in his book Eat That Frog. He suggests eating the biggest and ugliest frogs first. These are your top priorities that you might not want to do but are very important. Also, you want to organize your work so that you are working first on the 20% of opportunities that bring in 80% of the results.
I found this post very useful. One thing I’ve noticed is that I waste a lot of time digital fiddling.
What that is?
– checking email repeatedly
- checking blog stats
- checking subscriber stats
- checking email again
Now that I can see my pattern, I’ve set certain times each day for checking email and so on. Now I’m much more productive.
@mary
yeah, you’re right
so cut off them all when you do your biggest rocks, you will have a lot of more time to do that after your big rocks finish