Priority in Life: What Are the Big Rocks in Your Life?
– Musings of Dr. Jamie C. Hsu, 8.30.2016
We all have only finite time on hand. With every increasing demands from our work, family, friends, and social duties, we try to become efficient by using the to-do list. When one list is done, we happily check off all the items and move on to the next list. Sometime, we feel that we are on a tread mill, no matter how hard we run, and how fast we check off the to-do list, we are still at the same place. Our time jar is always full of must-dos, we have no time for leisure activities, for vacation, for skill renewal, or for making new friends. Sounds familiar? Maybe you should take a look of how you are filling your time jar.
Giving a jar of finite volume, you can fill it with sand, and will have no room to add. You can fill it with pebbles first, and will have no room for adding rocks. However, if reverse the sequence, fill it with rocks first, you’ll still have space for some pebbles, and even after it is full, you can still add a lot of sand.
What are the big rocks in your life? Family, Health, Relationship, Faith?
Take care of them first, before you fill you time jar with the sand of sense-numbing TV watching, endless texting, celebrity following, and negative chit-chats. First, search hard within yourself to develop a ‘to-be list’ to define what kind of person you want to be. Those are the big rocks in your life requiring most of your attention. Next, you need to come up with a ‘to-achieve list’ to give you motivation and direction. Only after you have clear vision for yourself and exciting objectives, you can fill your time jar with ‘to-do list’ to take care of your daily activities.
Make sure you take care of your big rocks first and let them guide your to-do list. You will achieve a lot more in life, and with more meaning.
And another point; don’t let others, including your bosses, fill your jar with sand. How to do that will be the topic for another article.
你是「清單控」嗎? 什麼是你人生的大石頭？
-作者 許俊宸博士
-中譯 薛乃綺
人生的有限時間在每個人自己手上。當來自於工作、家庭、親友、甚至社會責任的要求逐漸增加時，我們會列出一張張待辦事項清單，試圖讓自己變得更有效率。而當一張清單完成時，我們便開心地確認所有已完成事項，然後再趕著去完成下一張待辦清單。有的時候，會覺得自己好像在跑步機上，不論多努力、多快速完成待辦清單上的事項，我們都還是站回到原地，等著開始下一張清單。就好像手上的時間瓶子，塞滿著大大小小的「To-Do-List」，卻找不到時間去進行休閒活動、度假、進修、或者結交新朋友。聽起來很熟悉嗎？也許你該看看自己是如何推滿時間瓶子的。
在一個有限空間的瓶子中，你可以全部用砂子將它填滿，直到找不到一丁點空隙。你也可以先裝滿鵝卵石，然後發現沒有空間能裝大石頭。如果將順序倒過來，先裝大石頭，你會發現還有空間可以裝鵝卵石；即使裝滿後，你還能倒進許多砂子填補剩餘的間隙。
什麼是你人生的大石頭？家庭、健康、人際關係、信仰？
在你用砂子填滿自己的時間瓶子前(像是無意識轉台看電視、沒完沒了地傳簡訊、交際應酬、講別人的八卦等)，先將這些大石頭照顧好。首先，認真審視自己並建立一張”To-Be-List”來定義自己要成為什麼樣的人；這些就是你人生最需要花時間經營的大石頭。接下來，你需要列出”To-Achieve-List”，來做為驅動自己的動力與方向。只有在你已經擁有清楚的願景、也為自己設定了具備激勵的目標後，才能將作為”To-Do-List”的日常活動放入到時間瓶子中。
總之，要先確保你的”大石頭”被放在優先位置，讓它來引導你往下列出待辦清單。如此一來，你將能實現更多、更有意義的人生目標！還有另外一個重點就是，如何不讓其他人，包括你的老闆們，在你自己的時間瓶子裝滿砂？關於這個議題，我們留待下次再聊。
