A story to manage your time better

The story of Rocks, Pebbles and Sand

This is an excellent lesson to use in life. And today I want to turn it into a valuable exercise for Time Management for a Handmade Artist.

The rocks are the things that you must do, and that cannot be postponed or delayed. These are urgent and important. For example: complete orders and send them out to clients, create new products, list new items on your website.

The pebbles are important things to be done, but not so urgent. They have to be specific actions that will help you move forward and grow. Like developing new strategies, market research, taking an online course or solving an issue that was keeping you stuck.

The sand is ordinary, standard, administration tasks. Like emails, posting and browsing social media, tweaking your online shop, planning a sale, applying for a market, etc.

Usually people tend to start with the sand. But as you can see, if you start with the sand there will be no room for the rocks and the pebbles. That is why when we spend a lot of time on social media, it feels like we have done nothing all day!

Before we start - download and print the sample weekly schedule I have prepared to help you with the following steps. Get it here:

Step 1:
Write it all down. Just write all the things that you need and would like to accomplish during that week, in the 'To Do' list section. Make sure you write everything down as this will give you a clear idea of your to do list, and free up space in your brain. Don't use any particular order, write them as they pop up in your mind. 

Step 2:
Grab your diary and first of all jot down your commitments. These are appointments and meetings in your personal life too (dentist appointment, kids' drama night, etc). They are not necessarily things related to your business, but you need to honor them. 

Step 3: 
After that start identifying the rocks and schedule them in your week, ideally one per day. If you can, schedule them early in the morning when your focus is sharper, or a time where you are particularly at your peak performance. Cross off the tasks from the 'To Do' list as you schedule them inside your week. 

Step 4:
Now its time to write down your pebbles. Notice where you have a considerable stretch of time and add them to your week plan. Choose a time when you are productive, perhaps not straight after lunch when you tend to feel a bit lethargic. Don't forget to cross off the tasks from the 'To Do' list as you schedule them inside your week. 

Step 5:
Before you continue, go through your week and make sure it makes sense. Is it realistic? Don't expect to do something in 1 hour when in reality, to do it well, it requires 2 or 3. Is it overloaded? Dont stress yourself out and put more tasks that you can possibly do in a day. Be flexible; you are the boss and you have the freedom to choose how you work and when you work. Make sure you still have plenty of space left in your days, in order to be able to accommodate unexpected things that may pop up during the week. If you feel you have too many tasks, identify those that can be moved to the week after.

Step 6:
Your weekly plan is ready! Wait?! Really? What about the sand? Well, the holes in your week will be filled with your 'sand' as you go along. Keep the weekly schedule in your diary as a reminder - they will be the things that haven't yet been crossed off - and execute them along the week in between the other tasks (rocks and pebbles) where you have 'cracks' in time. 

Say for example you finished a job earlier and there is some time left before an appointment; or someone is late for a meeting and you have some spare time. This is the perfect time to fill the holes. Have a look at your weekly schedule and see what type of 'sand' tasks you can do in that crack of time. 

If you need to take a short break in between tasks, decide how many minutes you are going to take the break for - and stick with it. We all know how easily 20 minutes become 2 hours when browsing the internet. So you need to time yourself. The best tool I've found is Tomato-Timer.com, which is an online version of the 'pomodoro' technique. This technique is used as a timer to time intervals (which are named pomodoros) after the popular tomato-shaped kitchen timer that Cirillo used as a university student. 

The story of rocks, pebbles and sand is a great time-management strategy for you if you tend to procrastinate, or over-plan, or work days and days without getting any feeling of accomplishment. 

We need to work smarter, not harder. 

And remember that ultimately there are always exceptions to the rule. 
Like, for example:

This is a simple strategy from David Allen's bestselling book, "Getting Things Done". Basically, if something takes less than two minutes, then do it now! It's surprising how many things we put off that we could get done in 2 minutes or less. This applies to everything in your life. For example, wash the coffee mug, take out garbage, load the washing machine, send that email that needs a quick reply urgently, and so on.