Today I’m looking forward to a walk with my sister. She recently informed me that she’s making more time for the important things in her life. Her message reminded me of my favorite part of Stephen Covey’s book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – his demonstration of time management. Covey compares our most important relationships to “big rocks” and all the other stuff as small rocks and sand.
If your time is analogous to a bottle, and you first fill your bottle with small rocks and sand then there is no room for the “big rocks.” However, if you first fill your bottle with “big rocks,” then the small rocks and sand will fit in between the cracks. Covey’s message is to schedule the important stuff first – a date with your spouse, a phone call to your best friend, a workout, a massage, etc. Otherwise, these things won’t fit into your schedule.
Covey focuses on relationships and roles – wife, mother, sister, daughter. You are encouraged to keep these roles in mind as you create your schedule each week. To assist with this process, he has created a tool called the Weekly Compass Card. You write your roles and your commitment to each one on the card and then schedule the tasks on your calendar. When I was a paper-calendar girl, I used these cards all the time. Now, it has become habit to schedule these tasks on my calendar first.
A weekly compass card could look something like this:
ROLE: Wife
1. Give my husband a massage
ROLE: Mother
1. Spend 15 minutes reading together
ROLE: Daughter
1. Write thank you note to mom for baby clothes
ROLE: Sister
1. Schedule lunch date
The weekly compass card can also be used to target an area in your life, i.e. physical, emotional/social, mental, or spiritual. For example:
ROLE: Exerciser
1. Five 30-minute workouts
ROLE: Friend
1. Send email update to girlfriends
ROLE: Mental
1. Visit library and read latest professional journals
ROLE: Spiritual
1. Attend yoga class
