THE MAYONNAISE JAR AND COFFEE
I thought I would share this with you. Although I have read it many times, it is an interesting and encouraging thing to read :)
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When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar... and the coffee...
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.
When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.
He then asked the students if the jar was full.
They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar.
He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls
He then asked the students again if the jar was full.
They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.
Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an infamous "yes."
The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand.
The students laughed.
"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.
The golf balls are the important things. Your family, your children, your faith, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions.
Things, that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter. Your job, your house, and your car.
The sand is everything else. The small stuff.
If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.
The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.
Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups.
Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.
Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities.
The rest is just sand."
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.
The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."
posted by antimena @ 8/25/2005 10:37:00 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Oryte since nobody commented, and that is very strange considering naccache is one of the most infamous contributors to this blog, I will. I really love this demononstration since Im having a difficult time managing my time - lol - that sounds funny enough. I dont know whether its procrastination, bordeom, lack of disipline or demotivation, but to make things short, it really sucks :).
I think we all need to come up with an action plan to stick to being punctual to start with and then move on to setting daily schedules. I mean what's the point of setting a scehdule and then being behind every task by four hours - uggghhh - I hate that - I used to be so displined but I think the culture got to me - not that Im blaming it on the culture :P
Anywayz, I think the way naccache dissected boredom, maybe we can start analyzing time management (except that time management is more meaningful material - no offense intended at all of course :) )
Sheesh I forgot to put my name down..needless to say...Amy :) *yawn*
ya haram ya na22ash!
I totally agree with amy. I mean I have already set a day (or ya3ni half a day) where I will actually sit down and set priorities, and try to organize my life a bit.
I think the reason we sometimes get bored easily, is because we don't know what qualifies as our golf balls, our sand, and our coffee! So yeah, even though amy was talking about time management, the first step to achieve it is:
1) Prioritize what you do, have and planning to do
Next step shabab?
Yea good point antimena - prioritize what you have and planning to do. I normally stop there - lol - coz I hate schedules. I dunno, they frustrate me...probably because i put too much to be done...but this is our lives..Im not sure whether I cd change that - I mean main priorities like family, work, studying, service and excercise...there you go - ure day is gone! A schedule has never worked for me..because I eventually procrastinate and then cram myself..oh well..I guess that means time management never worked me...sheesh..back to square one!! So my question is, what do i do if i have too much to do??
You guys write too much... just stick to the coffee...
Sorry... Its a cranky morning. This is a classical case of too much to be done in a limited period of time. The problem is, when the amount of tasks overwhelm you, the natural reaction is escapism. In reality, tasks should be not only prioritised, but set on a time scale. For as such, each task will be first prioritised by its deadline, and then by its importance.
i need a coffee....
Maybe a deadline would help. However our main issue, is that we fear to let go of things to make room.
What this means is that I can be doing ten million things: many are needed, others I enjoy ... however, when we get something else to do, we just try to add on top of what we have, so we end up with a mess.
If you have too much ( I do!), then sit and get some stuff out of the way (at least temporarily) to get other stuff done. Once you are comfortable, then add on bit by bit.
I need to apply this.
What? Letting things go? Am I understanding you correctly? My life ESSENCE is about letting things go. Come to thing about it, when I'm weighed with so many tasks, and a new one arrives... I push all the others aside for the new one, in order introduce variance into my life.
The concepts of time management is very simple indeed. A google search returned 258 MILLION hits on 'time management'. Lets take an example:
At the heart of time management is an important shift in focus:
Concentrate on results, not on being busy
Many people spend their days in a frenzy of activity, but achieve very little because they are not concentrating on the right things.
The 80:20 Rule
This is neatly summed up in the Pareto Principle, or the '80:20 Rule'. This argues that typically 80% of unfocussed effort generates only 20% of results. The remaining 80% of results are achieved with only 20% of the effort. While the ratio is not always 80:20, this broad pattern of a small proportion of activity generating non-scalar returns recurs so frequently as to be the norm in many areas.
First I don't understand why ya Amy you only decided to comment because I didn't??!! :D
Well, I am definitely one of the crowd who are having time management problems... But I won't claim that I have too much to do. I do have many things to be done but still I have this belief that the time available is enough for even more... provided using the proper techniques..
I remembered something that may help along with Meekey's clever 80/20 Rule.
Um sure u came across the 4 quadrants of urgence and importance...
important/urgent "Firefighting"
important/not urgent "Quality Time"
urgent/not important "Distraction"
not important/not urgent "time Waste"
Classifying your things to do into the quadrant should definitely help you prioritizing a flat todo list and be more efficient rather than just become busy and consumed with urgent unimportant things. They call it the Tyranny of the Urgent:)
If you need docs about the quadrants or any of those useless self-development stuff, contact Bassem, he can help better with that better than me :D
As for me, I use intuition and Coffee :P
Im really impressed with the detailed feedback. I loved the categories provided by Naccache. But what happens if most of the things fall in Urgent/Important, Not Urgent/Important so most of the time Im either 'fire-fighting' or spending 'quality time?' But I guess things cd be more efficient if we let go of a few things..I think I can live without doing my nails (although my ex-boss thinks that's highly unprofessional). I think I can also live without shopping - it's a waste of time unless you have something in mind...I think I can also live without lazing around the sofa watching some dumb episode when i come home from work..I also looooooooooooooove Sameh's 'Find the right time..' i mean i function best in the morning so thats when I shd be studying...but unfortunately thats when I have to meet people of unnecessary existence in the world at work..I mean I actually wish my day was slotted according to the times I function best :)). I actually stop functioning intellectually after 10 pm - so maybe thats when I shd start going to work ;). Hmmm...great analysis guys!! I guess with me being the only lady in the house, I take the privilege of closing this discussion - only awaiting your feedback once we've implemented the above..tata
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