avatarDavid Hip

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A story about a tricky professor and misleading productivity advice

The students still had some big rocks left and there was not enough space in the jar left for them. Game over.

The professor had come into the hall with big stones, small pebbles, sand and one glass jar . He had told his students to fill the jar with all of them.

And they had failed.

But since he was a good, kind, and wise professor, he showed them how to do it:

  1. Put the big rocks in first
  2. Then add the smaller pebbles
  3. Fill the gaps with the remaining sand.

Voila, all fit. Everyone applauded.

This is a famous parable on productivity. The moral of the story is this:

Identify your top priorities and execute them first. Then in your spare time, you can do all the lesser tasks and fun activities. You can fill your time with them peacefully, as you know that the most important work is done already.

As Oliver Burkeman points out in his book, “Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals”, this is a too simplistic and ultimately misleading account. In everyday life, there are more big rocks than ever fit into a glass jar. He points out the central shortcoming of the parable:

The professor sneakily tricks his students. He brings only as many big rocks as fit into the jar. But in life, this is not the case. We have more big rocks, or meaningful projects, to fit into our life. We can never hope to fit everything in a jar. Some big rocks have to be left out. There is no happy ending.

I agree with this. But this parable is still crucial for living the good life. It’s in pointing out that if we don’t get our priorities straight in the first place, we don’t even get some rocks in. We distract ourselves by putting in small pebbles that are safe and filling the rest with distracting sand. Only to recognize there is no space left.

We can’t help but see ourselves as the silly students working all backward. And maybe even laugh about our helpless tries to get the puzzle right. And then go and work on what matters or pay attention to what counts most for us.

Yes, the jar is limited and only so many big rocks fit in. If we want to have them inside, we better make sure we put them in first.

Have a big rocky day,

David Hip

Productivity
Meaning
Philosophy
Time Management
Purpose
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