Lots of us at this stage tend to work harder, put in a little bit extra, it may speed things up. With the next roadblock and challenge coming along we might even get frustrated with progress being such hard work and taking so much longer than expected. Slightly irritated we keep pushing on. At this stage we are working totally IN the “project” and we continue to resort to work harder and faster, especially when faced with unexpected obstacles that hold us up. It is exhausting, we are carried along by the momentum, much like being caught in a wave at the seaside.

We could really do with a break now, but we don’t allow ourselves the rest because we are already behind schedule (whose schedule ?) and slowing down now, would just make us feel worse and delay the completion of whatever it is we are doing.

Well, would it ?

Astonishingly, the opposite seems to be true. Slowing down actually makes you faster. But how ? you may ask yourself.

By regularly taking time to work OUT of the “project” and thinking and reflecting about the progress achieved to date, the challenges at hand and not only the goal but the purpose of the specific goal. By slowing down and looking in, we often see new possibilities, new solutions and sometimes new directions leading to changed goals. It is like taking a metaview, floating above the day-to-day work and respective issues and looking at the whole project, if not our whole life. Amazing insights emerge from this perspective, many of which can save lots of time and dare I say energy.

You might realize that circumstances have changed and the specific goal you had set for yourself is no longer worth achieving. Instead of noticing this at the end of all your hard work, you could modify your goal early on. You might realize that there are more resources in unrelated areas that you would not have utilized, being too busy pushing the current project/s forward. You may realize, what was meant to be a new and exciting fun idea/project has stopped being fun altogether. Slowing down and reflecting will allow one to explore new ways of injecting more enjoyment into work, creating effectiveness without having to labor harder or faster.

Allow yourself to slow down and reflect regularly trusting that it will pay off and get you to what really matters. Life is too short, for one to be ineffective.

Do you sometimes feel so busy, that you don’t even get time to think, you run on auto pilot racing around to tick off your “to do” list, but while you tick off at the top it grows longer at the bottom ? You try to fit everything into the day but unexpected requests from friends and events that weren’t planned, throw you off. When people tell you, “just spend some time to plan your day” or “just decide what to cancel” you think “I don’t even have time for that, I don’t have time to sit down and plan and think”. I ask you only one question “Do you know what is most important to YOU” ?

Let me tell you a story.

A very famous Chinese professor from a very famous Chinese university sat in front of a group of new students. In front of him was a large glass jar, translucent and slightly green. The kind of jar people may keep plants in.

The professor looked at the students but said nothing. Then he leaned down to his right. By his foot was a pile of fist-sized rocks. He took a rock and very carefully dropped it through the hole at the top of the neck of the jar.

He turned to the group and said: “Tell me, is the jar now full?” The group murmured assent: the jar was now full.

the professor said nothing and turned to this left side. By his foot was a pile of pebbles. He took a handful of pebbles and carefully poured them through the hole at the top of the neck of the jar. Handful by handful, around the rocks, until no more pebbles could be poured through the hole at the top of the neck of the jar.

He turned to the group and said: “Tell me, is this jar now full?” The group mumbled that it certainly appeared as if the jar could possibly now be full.

The professor said nothing and turned again to his right. By his foot was a pile of coarse dry sand. He took a handful of sand and carefully poured it through the hole at the top of the neck of the jar. Around the rocks, around the pebbles, handful by handful, until no more sand could be poured through he hole at the top of the neck of the jar.

He turned to the group and said: “Tell me, is the jar now full?” There was silence.

The professor said nothing and turned again to his left side. By his foot was a jug of water. He took the jug and carefully poured the water through the hole at the top of the neck of the jar. Around the rocks, the pebbles, the sand. Until no more water could be poured through the hole at the top of the neck of the jar.

He turned to the group and said: “Tell me, is the jar now full?” There was silence, even more profound than before.

The professor turned again to his right. On a small blue square of paper he had a small pile of fine dry salt. He took a handful of salt and carefully dissolved it in the water at the top of the neck of the jar. Handful by handful in the water, around the sand, around the pebbles, around the rocks until no more salt could be dissolved in the water at the top of the neck of the jar.

Once again the professor turned to the group and said: “Tell me, is the jar now full?” One very courageous student stood up and said: “No Professor, it is not yet full.” The professor said: “Aaah! But is IS now full.”

The professor then invited all the people who were there to consider the meaning of his story. What did it mean ? How did they interpret it ? Why had the professor told it ? And after some minutes the professor listened to their reflections. There were as many interpretations as there were people in the room.

When the professor had heard from each of the students, he congratulated them, saying that it was hardly surprising there were so many different interpretations. After all, everybody there was a unique individual who had lived through unique experiences unlike those of anybody else. Their interpretations simply reflected their own lived experience and the particular and unique perspective through which they understood the world.

And in that sense no interpretation was any better, or any worse than any other. And, he wondered, were the group curious to know his own interpretation Which of course, he stated, was no better or worse than theirs. It was simply his interpretation.

Oh yes, they were curious.

“Well”, he said, ” my interpretation is simply this. Whatever you do in life, whatever the context, just make sure you get your rocks in first.” – End of Story.

Do you know what the rocks, the pebbles, the sand and the water are for you … in your life ?

Whatever they are for you, JUST MAKE SURE YOU GET Y O U R ROCKS IN FIRST ! They won’t fit afterwards.

How to create more time for myself ?

“Many people spend their days in a frenzy of activity, but achieve little because they are not concentrating on the right things.”

By using time management skills you can learn to:

- determine which of the things you do are important and which can be dropped

- use your time in the most effective way possible

- increase the time you spend on important things

- control the distractions that waste your time break your flow

- increase your effectiveness and reduce stress

By becoming more effective in your use of time, you can reduce stress by:

- being more in control of what you do

- being productive and confident because of this

- enjoying what you do

- giving yourself more quality time to relax and enjoy life outside duties/work.

Sounds great ! Why don’t people do it ? This could be because:

- they don’t know about the skills

- they are too lazy to plan

- they enjoy the adrenaline buzz of meeting tight deadlines

- they enjoy crisis management

The problem: they can lead to high levels of stress, a disrupted family life, tiredness and failure of projects/tasks.

4 Steps to More Time:

1. Evaluate how you currently use your time

- For 1 week write a diary noting down how and on what you spend your time

- After the week, understand how much time you spend on each area in your life

- Rank the areas by the amount of time you spend on them

- Ask yourself: Is this where my priorities ly ? Is this how I want to spend my life ?

2. Focussing on your priorities

- decide on your priorities in life, how do you want to distribute your time

- plan your week making sure your priorities get enough space

- work with to do lists and always know your top 5 (are they your priorities ?)

- understand others demands exactly before you accept and learn to say “no”

3. Creating more time

- Cutting the crap (non-important things)

- 80/20 rule: With 20 % of the effort you already reach 80% of the result. Being perfect costs time !

- Delegation

4. Avoiding distractions

- Don’t answer phone calls, door bells, email automatically or when you’re doing something important

- learn to say “no”

- become conscious of your escape activities (a quick tea, snack, checking email,

reading the paper or a magazine or article on-line etc)

Copyright by Silke Rehman