The Ignite Your Market Weekly Challenge’s goal is to create simple but powerful actions that you can do each week that will help you:
- Identify your market and opportunities.
- Connect with your client and prospects.
- Ignite your markets and your businesses.
THIS WEEK’S IGNITE YOUR MARKET CHALLENGE: SCHEDULE THE BIG ROCKS
Many small business owners and solopreneur are challenged to schedule their days to be truly productive. It is so easy to become distracted by emails, social media and day-to-day operation of our businesses. We focus on the perceived “urgent” work which holds us back from moving our businesses forward.
One of the most powerful productivity habits that I know was first captured by Steven Covey in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. That is Schedule the Rocks First!
The basic idea of Covey’s “Schedule the Rocks First!” concept is to think of your day as a large glass vase. If you fill your vase/day with little pebbles and tiny grains of sands (emails, social media, and reactive tasks) there is no room left for the Rocks (high priority tasks that move your business forward). It is almost impossible to squeeze Rocks into your vase once it is full of pebbles and sand.
What if you put the Rocks in first? What happens when you add the pebbles and the sand? What happens is that that pebbles and the sand start to fill in the spaces between the rocks and low and behold everything fits in the vase.
From personal experience, I’ve had weeks where I’ve focused on the pebbles and the sand and I haven’t had time for the Rocks. At the end of those weeks, I feel frustrated because I’m not achieving the results in my business that I know I can. I’ve also had weeks where I not only schedule the Rocks first, I also stick to my schedule, and those are the weeks that I create momentum in my business and I start to see the results I want.
This week’s Ignite Your Market Challenge is to schedule 1 to 2 Rocks per day that will move your business forward.
What business goals do you want to focus on that will really move your business forward? Pick 1 or 2 to work on this week, schedule time each day to work on them and stick to it. Use the Power Hour process to get the most out of your time.
I love to see entrepreneurs follow their passions, serve more people and create the lifestyle of their dreams.
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Thanks for this, Heather. Still wrestling with Mail Chimp but I think I have almost beat Youtube. Those are my rocks. Hope your day is going well.
Marie: One step at a time, just like you teach your students. You don’t know what you don’t know and you can learn anything.
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So maybe if I moved a rock a day out of my way I would gain strength and inner confidence let alone gain more business. After all, rocks are just a simple part of nature’s beauty. I’ll try it.
Tracy, that is a great way of putting it. “Move a rock a day”. Just think about how big your done pile of rocks will be in a month, 3 months and a year. Love it.
I do tend to try to take care of the pebbles and sand, thinking that if those are out of the way I can concentrate on the rock. More than not, the day is over and I’m kicking myself for not getting to the rock(s).
You’re not alone, many people do that. That is why it is so important to identify the rock and set aside time each day to do them. It doesn’t have to be the whole day. Try the Power of An Hour exercise it really does work.
I’ve always loved that concept of starting to fill a container with big rocks, as successively smaller ones will find space in the nooks and crannies. In your application, it also means that if you don’t get to the sand, you’ll still have the majority of your efforts in place. Great reminder!
I love this description. It is so easy to get focused on the pebbles and sand – there is so much of it to deal with, and often I think that I can catch up on the single larger rock. But of course, that is the one thing that keeps getting put off. Great post! I will definitely put more focus on my rocks first!
Takara – He did, probably why his book sold millions. Sound and simple advice.
Thanks for commenting.
Very interesting! I have to try it !
Caroline: Thanks for stopping by and reading the post. I hope that you do try it as I know you’ll see results.
I LOVE the word picture… There are so many things a business owner and entrepreneurs have to do and know what and when to do it is critical. It’s my opinion that marketing ought to be the #1 thing a business does. Without it, sales won’t magically happen… production won’t happen… customer service won’t happen… and there will be no real administration to follow-up on.
Don – great point marketing does need to be #1 but there is still a lot of sands and pebbles in the marketing area. Perhaps the most with social media and the “you should be on…” advice that hear. The trick is select the important part of marketing and step away from the distracting parts
Thanks for commenting.
I love this challenge to focus on the Rocks first. It’s too easy to get stuck with the business pebbles and sand.
Gina – we all get stuck in the business sand and pebbles, with social media there is so much more sand to get in our way.
Here to a week with out sand. Just nice big rocks in our schedules! 🙂
Yes, yes! Rocks 1st! Thank you for this. I was just thinking a few minutes ago that I need to focus on my Free Offer and keeping my weekly Blog going, then fit the other stuff in. I am guilty of doing the social media & email thing 1st. I’ve read Stephen Covey so I know better. Just need my friends to remind me. Thanks.
Pat – you are welcome. I’ll be honest I picked the topic because I need the reminder too.
Thanks for stopping by.
What a great concept – thanks for sharing!
Thanks for stopping by.
Thanks for this great perspective. I really have some changing to do in this area
Veronica – we all do. Start by scheduling just one big rock. Commit to it and see how it goes. You’ll be inspired by what you accomplish and start scheduling others. The trick is commit to it for a month or so.
Thanks for stopping by.
Great concept and graphic. I tend to spend the day doing small sand sifting and dont think of the big rocks. Will examine this approach.
Roslyn – I think we all do, we all spend too much time in the day doing the small sand, or pebbles and we avoid the big scary rocks. I do know when we tackle and schedule the rocks we have a much better sense of accomplishment.
Thanks for commenting.
Always getting those blog posts in every 2-3 hours Heather 😉 Smart advice, thanks!
Ryan – great at scheduling your big rocks first. I’m sure the life you’ve created requires that you do that so that you can enjoy the sand, the pebbles and the beaches. 🙂
I agree what you are saying… This happens to me sometimes also. You focus on so many of the smaller things that you forgot about major things that, if done can make it so that you never have to do the small things again.. .it can sometimes be a catch 22.
Kongphoo – great point. If you focus on the big things then often the small time consuming things go away. Great observation.
Great idea, I think writing and sharing are on the top of my list. If I have time, I go and participate in blog commenting, social sharing, and participate in chats sessions on twitter. There is always so much to do when it comes to marketing your own small business and focus on the things that are working for you.
Thanks commenting. When you say writing or sharing do you have numbers to go with it. That is when you are really defining your rocks. The easier it is to measure the easier it is to schedule. For example Write 3 blog post per week. Exercise for 30 minutes 5 days a week.
Finding those rocks is the hard part! Very interesting concept indeed!
Tina – I think admitting to yourselves what the rocks are is the hardest part. I think we often know. From a personal prospective – spending time with family, getting exercise, taking care of yourself. From a business perspective it is setting the goals and determine the rocks based on those goals.
Thanks for commenting.
Hello Heather,
Yes, making thing simple and overwhelming is the best way to go. I think often times we try to take on too much and we end up not moving forward with business. This is a great metaphor as well. Thanks Heather!
Nate – I think you are right there is so much more coming at these days it easy to get lost in the “sand”. What happens that a month, 2 months, 6 month, or a year latter we wonder where the time goes and why we haven’t accomplished what we wanted.
Great post. I agree we need to put the rocks in first. We may not always enjoy these things as much as we enjoy the sand but in order for us to grow and our business to grow we must stay on top of the things that will move us forward. Making a schedule, setting times frames for projects is a great way to stay on track and focused.
Meryl – what you said so true we might not enjoy them as much but I think we feel so much better and have much better sense of accomplishment when we attack the big rocks first.
Thanks for sharing.
A great reminder of how to use ur time constructively. I have been guilt recently of filling my jar with the sand first! Now it’s time to grab those rocks and deal with them first! Thank you Heather, Stphne Covey is a great inspiration.
Helen, thanks for commenting. It is so easy to fill our jar with the sand. I know for me it is time to fill it up with big rocks first.
Heather: The visual created by the “Big Rocks” and rigorously applying its concept have been instrumental in moving me to a more appropriately balanced schedule when things were appearing to tilt my glass to “out of control”. The biggest challenge I have ever faced is being honest to myself about what were MY Big Rocks – when everybody around seemed to be piling on me from their quarry. Thanks for the time you invested in sharing this with the Universe today. Namaste and Thank You, Thank YOU, THANK YOU. prp
Peter, thank you. You’ve made a great point in being honest with ourselves about what our big rock are. I know at times I’ve been challenged with that as well.
Heather, I’m a huge and long-time fan of Stephen Covey’s work and the “Scheduling Your Rocks” approach. Your challenge is such a great idea.
Thanks, Kat. I’m a huge fan too. It is a great analogy.