For me, one of the keys to succesful goal setting, and success in business, is effective time management. I've written a few articles and book exerpts on the subject, but this one is by far my favourite:

Time Management: The Pickle Jar Theory
by Jeremy Wright

There’s something about a nice crunchy pickle, isn’t there? I mean the aroma may make some people puke, but for me it’s the taste and the juice forcing itself into your mouth like a divine cascade of flavor. As a wise man once said, “It’s like a taste explosion in your mouth!”

Well, this article really has nothing to do with pickles, nor does it have anything to do with eating or wise men at all. In fact this article has nothing to do with anything tangible, unless you choose to follow along. Though you don’t have to, I would strongly suggest it as you could have quite the nifty little craft project by the end of this piece!

The jar
Time Management theories have come and gone. I’ve tried many of these and most have failed because of the sheer amount of time I needed to commit to the theory in order to save some time. The return just never seemed to justify the cost, if you know what I mean.

The latest theory of Time Management I heard has actually caused me to stop and think about how I run my entire life. This kind of thing doesn’t happen very often, and no I don’t mean thinking, cheeky readers! The theory that was recently taught in a Leadership course I’m enduring is called the Pickle Jar Theory.

The theory
Imagine if you will an, or for those crafty people among you just go get an, empty pickle jar. Big pickle jar, you could fit at least three of the largest pickles you’ve ever imagined inside of it. For those of you who don’t like pickles, I apologize, feel free to substitute the words “pancake jar” for “pickle jar” as needed.

Okay, so you’ve got yourself a pickle jar. Now, put some large rocks in it. Put in as many as you possibly can. Let me know when it’s full. Now, I know you think it’s full, but put a couple more in anyway.

Okay, you’ve got a full pickle jar that you can’t fit anything else into, right? Now, put some pebbles in. Put as many in as you can possibly fit, and raise your hand and bark like a pig when you feel your jar is full.

Now, take your full jar and take sand and, you guessed it, fill that jar until you can’t possibly fit anymore in, and then add some water.

I am sure the significance of this little exercise hasn’t escaped any of you. Each of us has many large priorities in our life, represented by the large rocks. We also have things which we enjoy doing, such as the pebbles. We have other things we have to do, like the sand. And finally, we have things that simply clutter up our lives and get in everywhere: water.

None of these are bad things. After all, we need the gamut of these objects—from large priorities to times of rest—in order to feel truly fulfilled. No Time Management theory should be without balance, and the Pickle Jar theory is all about balance. You make time for everything, and everything simply fits well where it is supposed to fit.

Me and my day
As an example of my pre-pickle day, my little to-do list looked a lot like this:



8:00: check and respond to email
8:30: check various community sites and respond where required
9:00: ensure all web properties are running properly
9:15: set priorities for the day
9:30: go for a walk, grab some water
10:00: do website maintenance, remove outdated content
11:00: draft an article
11:30: polish next article to go out
12:00: ensure all things web-related are handled, running well and all questions are answered
12:30: lunch
1:30: do programming on latest large project
2:30: write letters to clients to keep them abreast of changes in the last three days to their projects
3:30: check with team on progress, deal with issues
4:30: … etc., etc., etc.

Now, I may have actually accomplished a lot in this type of day; in fact, I typically did. All my websites were running properly, I’d written an article or two, I’d done actual work, I’d built client relationships, I’d ensured my team was working properly, so what could be wrong?

Well, take a look at the first five hours of my day. Between 8am and 1pm, all I manage to actually get done that couldn’t fit into other times when my mind tends to wander (and I tend to do these things anyway) was a little bit of article writing.

This part of the day was really a supreme waste of time. I often went to lunch feeling like I was convincing myself that I had been productive. At the end of the day I always believed that a lot got done, but my lunch times always felt slightly depressing.

Beyond that, this schedule did not work if a client walked in and needed an exceptional amount of work done, if a site had crashed overnight, or if I had an email that required more than five minutes of attention. If anything unexpected happened, which we all know should actually be expected, my whole morning and often my entire day fell apart.

My new, improved day
In these post-pickle days, my schedule looks rather different. I now schedule in times when my rocks should get done and let my other priorities, the unexpected and little things I do all day, like surf the web, fill in the gaps. New schedule:



800: figure out rocks for the day (literally, this is what it says!) and deal with emergencies
830: article writing as appropriate
1000: programming
1300: client correspondence

Suddenly I have what feels like a more open day. I have more time for programming, I get things done earlier, I am more relaxed, my schedule is more fluid. It all works incredibly well.

In the post-pickle days I realized that I needed to really figure out what my big rocks were during the day and not schedule time for anything else in my daily routine. Email is not a rock: I can go a few minutes and, wonder of wonders, even a day or two without touching it.

Email is a lot like the phone in that even though we all have our phones on just in case an important call happens, when we look back on our year it is rare that we can remember more than one or two occasions where we absolutely needed to answer our phone or email at that precise instant.

The detractors
There are of course those in the audience who will never have practiced Time Management techniques in the past. They feel they are productive enough and get “enough” done. I’m glad, way to go, give yourselves a hand. Now, grab your jar again. Empty it.

Fill your jar with water until it is completely full. Now, try and add some sand. What do you mean it didn’t work?

This is the essence of the Pickle (or Pancake) Jar Theory. By first ensuring that your large priorities are tackled, scheduled, and done for the day, you can then let the smaller but less important things in until you have somehow allowed time in your day for everything you needed to do, while still relaxing and having fun.

The value of water
I strongly encourage everyone to use at least one Time Management System. It empowers you to actually do instead of scurrying about without any goals in sight. Whether you choose this particular system or not, remember: eat the pickles before you empty the jar, they are so good!

Wow I never thought of it like that.

Great analogy! Discipline is the key to mastering time management. For those of us who are a bit scatter brained at times, it is easier said than done.

I love this theory.. it is good.. but maybe I have something better to share ... what about having more time in your life and feel more energetic than ever before.. being awake at least 18-20 hours... it gives you more time than ever you have had in your day... usually we stay awake 16 or maybe 14 hours ... to get that "extra" time to your life is just outstanding...

Why don’t you just find out... I’m not an salesman... it’s free .. just want to share knowledge with you...

just email, send me message ...

Toomas

Time management is non existent for me, which bad with my Open University studies.

I'm a kind of spur of the moment person. I don't allot a certain time to do a particular task, I just suddenly jump up from the sofa at the weekend and decide to do something.

Yeah I'm pretty much the same way. But Jeremy's article does make good sense. Like danielx said, I've never thought of it that way before.

That's an interesting article. I am learning how to manage time at the moment and finding it a difficult habit to get into. I have found it to be an enormous help to my studies, so I am working hard at it.

Prioritising tasks definitely works and helps to get the most important things done first. There is always time left over to deal with the not so important things as well.

Yeah it does sound very interested and sounds like something i need to do but i really look at it like its not me xccontrolling my life and no letting it be as it is yyou know.I would do it in certain parts of my schedule but not most.

Wow! Very good article!

Is this article available for reprint? And do you have other articles?

I don't think he's going to respond...He only came here when I first opened the forum, to help me get the ball rolling with posts. Here (http://www.ensight.org/) is his site though, if you want to try to get a hold of him.

Thanks. :)

Time management is non existent for me, which bad with my Open University studies.

I'm a kind of spur of the moment person. I don't allot a certain time to do a particular task, I just suddenly jump up from the sofa at the weekend and decide to do something.

You may want to keep a list around of things you want to do. Take some time out, and come up with that list. Then, do whatever you feel the best thing to do at that moment is. One thing you need to be on the lookout for is that you let too much time slip by being idle (goofing off). Having the list will also keep you mindful of what you want done.

Also, you may want to make a note of what you like to do when, so that you can get an idea of how you work as a person. One way is, keep a time sheet for a week. When you start on something, put down what you are doing (one or two words is enough. just enough to remember what you were doing). Then, take a few minutes at end of week, or beginning to next, to look over what exactly you did.

Let me know how that goes.
- Richard Hutnik

My time management should be a little easier since I dropped one of the OU courses I was doing.

Its amazing how effective having a To Do List can be. I have only realised this recently while listing tasks I need to do for my school projects.

This is the best time management tool I have used. Now that I have formally learnt how to write them properly, I expect to make further improvements in productivity. I also find it unclutters my mind and greatly reduces stress. :yup:

Sounds good Scarlet!

how do we all manage our lives?

is there anything wrong with the way that we manage them now?

would an extra 2 hrs per day be all that important to you?

there never seems to be enough time in the day for busy people, and there never will be as we are all too active. it would be nice to be able to do more, but by our nature, some of us may procrastinate (not a bad thing) for good reason. what's more important than time management is life management.

how is your quality of life?
quality is usually less, not more(quantity).

why do you have to achieve? and do you really need to just because others do? i think not. we can't all be einstiens, gates, etc etc.

just be you. make worthwhile improvements, not quantum leaps. there's no race, we all die, wouldn't you rather do that slowly?

a do list, or time management? is there a difference?

Yeah, good post.

I have just started reading First Things First by Stephen Covey and one of the things he says is that a lot of people are addicted to urgency.... they feel as though they are being extremely productive when working on urgent tasks, but they neglect things that are important.... such as family and other relationships.

Yeah, good post.

I have just started reading First Things First by Stephen Covey and one of the things he says is that a lot of people are addicted to urgency.... they feel as though they are being extremely productive when working on urgent tasks, but they neglect things that are important.... such as family and other relationships.
True,

who is there to support you if everything else around collapses around you? Your family.

I think that's why professional athletes, sportsmen and women sports entertainers get married, not just for love, also so they have someone to turn to through the bad times in their careers.

True,

who is there to support you if everything else around collapses around you? Your family.

I think that's why professional athletes, sportsmen and women sports entertainers get married, not just for love, also so they have someone to turn to through the bad times in their careers.

I agree.

I also think that is why a lot of people are not truly happy, even though they have immense wealth etc.... probably because they've gained it at the expense of their families.

you are where you are, not because of you, but because of the people who you have retained around you. you are not you, you are we. you will never achieve anything alone, so appreciate the people around you, because they are as much as your success as you are yourself.

and a secondary thought. ...........

it is interesting to see these threads morph into completely different threads

it would be nice to be able to do more, but by our nature, some of us may procrastinate (not a bad thing) for good reason. :banghead: :confused:
.

what's more important than time management is life management. :thumb: Agreed. and when you fuse the two, the resulting synergy surpasses either individually.
.

how is your quality of life? quality is usually less, not more(quantity).
I have found that the Quality of your life is in direct proportion to the QUANTITY of what you consider QUALITY in your life. What fires and drives your Passions. So it's really isn't less that helps create Quality, it's creating the Quantity of QUALITY that helps make it so.
.
why do you have to achieve? and do you really need to just because others do? i think not. we can't all be einstiens, gates, etc etc.

just be you. make worthwhile improvements, not quantum leaps. there's no race, we all die, wouldn't you rather do that slowly?

a do list, or time management? is there a difference?

Well ..... as the old saying goes ...... if you think you can / can't, you will.

If it is a priority, and you have your Reasons, your passions, your WHYS identified and aligned, of course you can do anything you want! In a way that not only enhances your life, but the lives of those around you as well. In a QUALITY way!


For those interested, Tony Robbins offers a program call Time Of Your Life. It covers EXACTLY what is being discussed here.
It's a Ten Day program designed to help you identify where and when you are using your time effectively, and where you are deluding yourself in that thought, and where and when and how you are "In the Zone."
It helps you identify the many Roles you play in the many areas of your life, and what drives you in each of those.
It helps you enhance your WHYS, so the Quality of your Quality can actually increase!
It helps you set up your day to work on what supports the Quality aspects, while aslo taking care of the "to dos" that ned to be addressed and handled.
It helps you Map out your Future, in a way that is different and unique to the program.
It offers a really cool Decision Making Model that helps back the emotion out of a decision for the moment, to fbetter focus on the Outcome, the Reasons, the different Options, the possible Consequences, what needs to be done to remedy any shortcomings, so you have a very clear direction you can now take on. And it Wraps up with a very cool exercise that helps you get in touch with and draw from your own Victories and Successes and Pleasures from your past.

Is it for everyone? YES. Everyone that can get past the "I don't need that" or "I don't like/agree with/respect Tony Robbins" or "I've alresady done that" syndroms.

If you want to enhance your Quality of Life thru Life Management, there is no finer program.

Along a similar line, Harrianne Mills of Stanford University provides the following quote from, First Things First, by Steven R. Covey, A. Roger Merrill, and Rebecca R. Merrill, which I think captures the problem pretty well.

-------------------------

319 words

"I attended a seminar once where the instructor was lecturing on time. At one point, he said, "Okay, it's time for a quiz." He reached under the table and pulled out a wide-mouth gallon jar. He set it on the table next to a platter with some fist-si zed rocks on it. "How many of these rocks do you think we can get in the jar?" he asked.

After we make our guess, he said, "Okay, let's find out." He set one rock in the jar...then another...then another. I don't remember how many he got in, but he got the jar full. Then he asked, "Is the jar full?"

Everybody looked at the rocks and said, "Yes."

The he said, "Ahh." He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar and the gravel went in all the little spaces left by the big rocks. Then he grinned and said once more, "Is the jar full?"

By this time we were on to him. "Probably not," we said.

"Good!" he replied. And he reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went in all the little spaces left by the rocks and gravel. Once more he looked at us and said, "Is the jar full?"

"No!" we all roared.

He said, "Good!" and he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in. He got something like a quart of water in that jar. Then he said, "Well, what's the point?"

Somebody said, "Well, there are gaps and if you really work at it, you can always fit more into your life."

"No," he said, "that's not the point. The point is this: if you hadn't put these big rocks in first, you would never have gotten any of them in?"

-------------

S.R. Covey, A.R. Merrill, and R.R. Merrill, First Things First. New York: Simon & Shuster, 1994, pp. 88-89. Copyright © 1994, Simon & Shuster.

The Franklin Covey Company (http://www.franklincovey.com)

Good post David. :D

So basically what he is saying is in your time management, schedule the big tasks first and get them out of the way?

I like this story, because it illustrates a couple different things so well.

I always relate that story not as getting the Big things done first, but getting the QUALITY things handled, or else those big things might not leave you time for the quality things in your life. So in THAT regard, Yes .... Make those QUALITY things the Big Things, and make the other stuff fit arond THEM!

to procrastinate is to defer action, nothing more, nothing less.

it is not a negative word, and i believe is widely misinterpreted. it is one of those words that is easily directed as a vehicle to an intended bent.

most conversations inherantly use this word subjectively, and it is accepted that this is the case. But i do not agree with the commonly grounded theme.

to procrastinate is a wisely used judgement by all of us at regular intervals.

do not underestimate its value, and do not abuse it.

Main Entry: pro·cras·ti·nate http://www.m-w.com/images/audio.gif (javascript:popWin('/cgi-bin/audio.pl?procra01.wav=procrastinate'))
Pronunciation: pr&-'kras-t&-"nAt, prO-
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -nat·ed; -nat·ing
Etymology: Latin procrastinatus, past participle of procrastinare, from pro- forward + crastinus of tomorrow, from cras tomorrow
transitive senses : to put off intentionally and habitually
intransitive senses : to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done
synonym see DELAY (http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=delay)



It appears that in this definition "to put off intentionally and habitually something that should be done" is far less than positive.

I like this story, because it illustrates a couple different things so well.

I always relate that story not as getting the Big things done first, but getting the QUALITY things handled, or else those big things might not leave you time for the quality things in your life. So in THAT regard, Yes .... Make those QUALITY things the Big Things, and make the other stuff fit arond THEM!You are right again! :thumb:

manta, our dictionaries, not unlike our people, are a little more laid back. interpretations on words do differ between say, websters dictionary and the macquarie australian dictionary.

and further to this, i would suggest that in the transitive sense, we procrastinate with death however consiously or unconciously, so is that positive?

don't take em too literally!!!!!!

Procrastination? I tend to just put it off until later! :D

Mantarayz,

Do you know if The Time of Your Life is a better program than Get The Edge? I have seen the infomercials on Get the Edge and that interests me but I have not heard of the other one. I am interested in a good goal setting program and hear Get the Edge is good for that.

Seth

Mantarayz,

Do you know if The Time of Your Life is a better program than Get The Edge? I have seen the infomercials on Get the Edge and that interests me but I have not heard of the other one. I am interested in a good goal setting program and hear Get the Edge is good for that.

SethAloha Seth! Welcome to Success!

You ask a good question, and I'm glad you defined why you ask.
Get the Edge is an excellent program that covers aspects of all areas of life, including a goal setting session.
Time Of Your Life is also an excellent program that covers a couple specific areas of life in much richer detail and depth. From a pure Goal Setting perspective, I'd say TOYL is a beter product. It walks you through the WHYS of Goalsetting that others don't, which is really the more compelling part of Goals. A goal is nice, but WHY is the Goal important in the first place? What will that goal do to enhance yours or others lives? When You can answer the WHY, when you can stack enough of those WHYS in your lists, you are then creating the momentum right from the start.

TOYL is about the OPA / RPM process -
Outcome-Focused
Purpose-Driven
Action Plan
or
ResultsFocused
Purpose-Driven
MASSIVE Action Plan

At the Heart? PURPOSE ~ the WHY!

If you developed the habit of asking '"Whats My PURPOSE FOR ....... ?" you would son find the uncanny ability to immediatly define the Why, as well as what Action(s) are nbeeded to make that a reality!

Whats My Reason for coming to SuccesVibe ~ What My Purpose for Coming here?
Because;
I like the people here
I like to learn
I like to give back
I like to see others breakthroughs and victories
Because I expect Tom to pay me by the word, with a bonus per post :biglaugh: :bonk:
Its a diversion at times
Because I can expand my Sphere of Influence
It juices me to help people like you make a decision on a product that can make a MASSIVE difference in their life.
When you Grow, I Grow too.
When You take something from me, I've now affected 5 people beyond you, because you will touch them when I cannot.
Because I Make a Difference in Peoples Lives. WHO I AM MAKES A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE!
Because someday, I get to change "Senior Member" to "Transfomationalist" :D
Because I can help contribute to the Success of the SuccessSite (still waitin' for a staff position! ;) )
It's another place to be goofy!
Because I am a Beacon, a Shining guiding Light of Wisdom and Truth
Because ultimately ...... I Enhance Humanity!

now .... THAT Feels GREAT! It took me about 5 minutes to come up with those 16 things that excite me about being here. So when I think about logging on, I'm excited, becaue ALL those things are in my mind. and at the core? I ENHANCE HUMANITY! and have FUN doing it!

That is an illustration of the difference of Get the Edge and TOYL. I own both, and in fact, own just about all of the Big Guys stuff! And from your question, I would not have gone this far without the belief that you would most benefit from TOYL first. i'ma lso pretty confident that you will later decide to get other sets too. The next I'd recommend? Personal Power II - The Driving Force. This is Tonys 30 day course, and it encompasses about 90% of his current Seminars. I say 90% becase it was recorded originally about 15 years ago, and had a minor update in 1997 (hence PPII) A close second would be GTE. It is a condensed version of Personal Power, and in fact, has 7 days from the PPII to give the core phylosophies and exercises. And has an excellent Morning motivation/Workout CD called Hour of Power.

Let me know how you do with TOYL. Days 1 -5 are the most valuable, as well as day 9 & 10. Day 9 is an EXCELLENT Decision Making strategy, and day 10 is a great wrap up. Days 6, 7 & 8 are how to use his planner, which you can get, or if you are comfortable with what you use now, keep it. Do listen to 6 - 8, because it has some great tip and suggestions on what to do, how to do it, and the WHY as well! ;)

Be well!

~ Stan ~

Mantarayz,

Thank you for the response. It looks as though the time of your like program is more up my alley.

One question. What is OPA? :hmm:

-Seth

Tony LOVES Anagrams and Initials and making things different and easier to remember.

OPA is the initials for

Outcome Focused
Purpose Driven
Action Plan

later, Tony changed it to RPM

Results Focused
Purpose Driven
Massive Action Plan

as detailed in the above post, it is a way of looking at anything, based on the Outcome, the Result, the Goal that you desire, and ground that with the Purpose, the real intent behind that Goal.
If you don't have a great reason to, you probably won't.
If you have a bunch of great reasons, you'll be more inpelled to achieve it.
If you have a menu of reasons that Excite and Delight you, you are FAR MORE LIKELY to blast through any obstruction or challenge or problem that my be present.

Mantarayz,

Thank you again for answering my questions. I ordered Time of Your Life and look forward to getting started on it.

One last question. :confused:

What is a "transformationalist"?

-Seth

A Transformationalist

by Transforming Words,
by Transforming Thought,
by Transforming Language,
by Transforming a Meaning,
by Transforming Destiny itself,
by Transforming Understanding,
by Transforming a frown into a Smile
by Transforming a negative to a Positive,
by Transforming a problem to a Opportunity,
by Transforming the unrealistic into a Possibility,
A Transformationalist is one who Makes A Difference!
in Others - in Themself - in Their Community - in the Universal Source.

A Transformationalist is one who looks to help usher Humanity to it’s Next Level,
of Compassion - of Caring - of Understanding - of Joy - of Unconditional Love for All.

Very nice Mantarayz! I'm glad I asked. :thumb:

me too! It's excellent to keep in mind!


Whats cool about being a Transformationalist?
You don't have to study for it ...... although you can.
You don't have to pay for the title ....... although you can.
You don't have to do anything extraordinary ....... although you can.
All you have to do to be a Transformationlist is .......



BE the Best example of You that you can be!

My Time of your life arrived today and I planned on starting tomorrow but I decided to listen to just the first bit of the first CD and I ended up listening to the entire CD. I like what I hear.

Bump!