Bountiful Results

The answer is 1,440.

The question should be – How many minutes a day do you spend improving your quality of life?

Today, we live in a time where our day is measured by minutes (1,440), not hours.  It is a slow day if we only have 20 things to do.  If I am not careful, I can get caught up in the quantity of things to do.  It is the quality of what we do that matters.

If I may go back to the farm for a minute, the health of the plant was critical to the amount of vegetables it could produce and the size of the vegetables.   Likewise, my health has to be at the top of the list for those precious minutes that are being fought over.  I would not think of depriving a plant of sunlight and water, yet I have been guilty of depriving myself of exercise and a balanced diet.  Do you see where I am going?

I watched someone demonstrate  the perfect time management example using a glass jar, some rocks, some pebbles and some sand.  He said that the rocks are your quality items, the things that are of great value to you.  The pebbles are the daily tasks and the things that may be required or have been hanging around on your list.  The sand is the unexpected and unforeseen tasks such as phone calls, e-mails, questions or “fires that need to be put out”.  If the sand starts pouring into jar before you can get the rocks and pebbles into place you are done – they will not fit.  Let me see a show of hands.  How many of you are going through this right now?

Schedule the rocks in first- the pebbles and sand will often fit around them.

Here are my big rocks:

• My health
• My family
• Quiet time for planning
• My career

That is it for today, with not a minute to spare.