Before talking about how to better organise your agenda, let’s see what I mean with scheduling your priorities. To that end, I want to share with you the story about the jar and the rocks. Have you heard about i?
The story about the jar and the big rocks
So, one day an old professor was hired to teach a group of managers from important international companies about effective time management. But he only had an hour for the class. Therefore he looked at his students one by one and said: “Let’s do an experiment.”
Under the table, separating him from the students, he had stored a large jar, which he placed delicately in front of him first. Then he produced a dozen rocks the approximate size of tennis balls and introduced them one by one into the jar. When he finished placing all the rocks, filling the jar to the top, he looked up and asked the students: “Do you think this jar is full?”
Everyone replied: “Yes”
“Really?” he added and bent down again to produce a recipient full of gravel. He then delicately emptied the recipient into the large jar, causing the gravel to work its way down into the spaces between the rocks. When he finished, he addressed the class again asking: “Is the jar full now?”
This time the students started to understand the experiment and one of them replied: “Probably not.”
“Good” replied the professor. At once he reached under the table to bring out a bucket of sand. Thereupon he gently poured it into the large jar, full of rocks and gravel, filling the spaces left. Once more he asked: “Is the jar full?”
This time, without hesitation, the class shouted: “No!”
“Excellent” replied the professor and took the cup of coffee beside him to pour it into the jar as well. Then he looked up again and asked the class: “What is the point of this experiment?”
After thinking for a moment, an eager student said: “The point is that, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it!”
“No!”, the professor replied. “That is not the point. The big truth this experiment shows us is that, if you do not put in the big rocks first, you will never get them all in.
So, which are the big rocks in your lives? Your health, family, friends, pursuing your dreams, defending a cause, learning, relaxing? Or something else? I want you to realise the importance of placing these big rocks first in your lives. This jar represents your life and the rocks the important things like family, children, happiness, friends… They are things that, if losing everything else, would still give a sense to our lives.
Now, the gravel represents other things important to us, like work, home, a car etc. And the sand would be everything else, the small things.
If we fill the jar first with sand, there will be no space left for the gravel and less for the big rocks. The same happens with life. If we spend our time and energy on the small things, we will not have time for the important ones. Therefore, pay attention to the things essential for your happiness, take care of the big rocks first and know your priorities. The rest is only sand…”
When the professor finished, one of the students asked: “And the coffee?”
The professor smiled and replied: “The coffee shows us that even when we are engrossed in our day-to-day and life seems busy, there will always be time for a coffee with a good friend”.
Set your priorities
Firstly reflect on which are the big rocks in your life. After that think about the gravel, i.e. other important things, which actually should help you take care of those big rocks. Once you are clear about these two aspects, you will realise that everything else is sand. And it will be easier to keep in mind the priorities and make decisions accordingly on everything else.
So, applying the principle of the rocks, gravel and sand to our agenda, next think about which are the priorities to reach your and your company’s objectives. By the way, take time to assess whether certain periodic meetings, that once seemed important and useful, still fulfill their purpose.
The cost of a meeting
Many people’s agendas are full of meetings. But have you ever stopped to calculate the cost of meetings for a company? A simple formula could actually be the following:
Meeting cost = No. of participants x Meeting duration in hrs x Avg. participants’ salary / hour.
Now think whether the meeting’s benefit surpasses its cost. Although a meeting’s benefit cannot always be calculated easily in money, this still can be an interesting concept to keep in mind.
Place the big rocks first
First of all, within your priorities reserve time blocks for your wellness, that is the big rocks of your life. After that, schedule the rocks that are the foundations of your job, i.e. the most important projects and tasks to achieve your objectives. This might be time slots to work with concentration on a project. Or it may be important meetings like management committees, staff or project meetings for example.
Also, for recurring meetings of this kind I recommend setting up a yearly calendar. Then invite the participants and even book the meeting room in advance. Actually it will be easier to postpone a meeting once in a while because a more prioritary issue has come up, than having to remember to organise it and figure out a convenient date for all participants on the go. Because as the year advances everyone’s agendas will fill with rocks, gravel and even sand. And this will make it harder to find times when all participants are available.
Think about the gravel
Next think about other periodic meetings it would make sense to leave scheduled in advance for the same reason I just commented.
As well, there may be tasks to be carried out on a recurring basis on certain dates, be it once a year, every couple of months or weeks or so. In these cases it is useful to set up notifications in your agenda and thus take the load off your mind to remember when the moment arrives.
I even suggest you create a list or lists with this type of issues, so you do not have to search for them in last year’s calendar when preparing for the next. Examples could be precisely preparing the yearly calendar of periodic meetings, invoicing or reporting tasks, the organisation of events, conferences or meetings etc.
Do not fill your agenda too much
Now talking of the day to day, I recommend you do not fill your agenda completely with meetings. On one hand, this would not leave you time to concentrate on tasks and projects. On the other hand, remember that incidents may occur that require urgent attention. Or new projects may come up that require time.
Give meetings but the required duration
The majority of agendas offer 30-minutes time slots. This entices us to schedule meetings starting and finishing at an hour on the spot or half past. It also leads us to set a duration which is a multiple of 30 minutes. But remember that an hour has 60 minutes, so why not schedule a 15- or 45-minutes meeting.
Remember Parkinson’s Law: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. The same principle can be applied to meetings. If we reserve more time than needed, probabilities are high that the excess is time is filled, but with issues not necessarily relevant.
Reserve time buffers
Furthermore I recommend you reserve time buffers between meetings. The 30-minutes predefined time slots can also tempt us to schedule one meeting right after the other. But if you want to ensure productive and effective meetings, the intermediate time buffers will serve a couple of purposes:
- Ensure starting the next meeting on time. If your previous meeting has suffered a delay, you won’t have the attendants to the next meeting waiting for you.
- Mentally disconnect from the previous topic and prepare for the next one. Even go pick up the required documentation.
- Make an important phone call.
- Check your e-mail because you are awaiting an important issue.
- Last but not least, it will give you time for mundane things like going to the bathroom, drinking some water or having a snack.
Plan the itinerary for meetings out of the office
If your meetings require you to get around town, calculate a bit more than just the itinerary’s duration for the time it takes you to get your car and park, or take a taxi or public transport. This means reserving time buffers for contingencies: the car does not start; you get into traffic jam; you don’t find parking; the taxis are occupied; the metro gets stuck; you find a stain on your suit which you need to clean; you realise you laddered your tights…
As well keep in mind that, in order to be on time, it is necessary to arrive a bit early. Now it does not count to be entering the building at the agreed time. Possibly you will have to identify yourself at reception. Then they will have to notify the person you are meeting. And this person has to pick you up… a process which may take at least five minutes.
Hence, all this will help you not to arrive stressed out and anxious, which does not make the best impression, don’t you think?
And if in the end you are early, just for the better. Because you can always kill time making a phone call, checking your e-mail, having a coffee. But if you are late, you will not only delay your own agenda but also disrupt the person or people you are meeting. And in case you think, but I am really busy and have many important things on my agenda, remember that other people as well. However, they have reserved you a part of their precious time. So please respect their time and by the way your own. Others will appreciate it and you actually, too.
Minimise the trips
When organising meetings out of office, I also suggest you plan them according to their location. That way you avoid crossing town from one end to the other several times. If you will not spend the day out, but have planned to go by the office, I personally try to schedule meetings first thing in the morning, in order to go straight from home. Another option is last thing in the afternoon, to return home directly afterwards. As a third option, I would place them around lunch time. That way you will have reasonable time slots left in your agenda to work on other things.
I just think it is not very effective or productive if you have to leave the office mid-morning or mid-afternoon leaving you little time to work. If it is in the morning you will have hardly arrived to the office when you will have to leave again. If it is in the middle of the afternoon, after the meeting you will doubt whether it makes sense to return to the office.
Still, if there is no choice because the time of meeting has been imposed, it might be a good idea to take work with you to get done in the spare moments.
Do you schedule your priorities or prioritise the issues on your agenda?
Now, it is tempting to prioritise the issues and jobs that come up. But once you start establishing your priorities and manage your agenda accordingly, you will notice a change in your workload and agenda.
So, do you apply the concept already?
If not, has the story been clarifying?
