While lecturing at a local university, a professor put a Mason jar in the front of the room. Right next to that jar he placed a bowl full of rocks, and proceeded to fill up the jar with rocks. After squeezing in about 6 or 7 and finally running out of room, he looked up at the class and asked if they thought the container was full.

The students looked at the jar, looked back at the rocks, and said, "Sure. The jar looks full."

At that point the professor reached underneath the table, and pulled out another bowl. Except this time, instead of rocks it was filled with gravel. And with the stones being smaller than the original rocks, he easily poured the contents into the open areas of the Mason jar.

After about half a minute, the professor put the new bowl down, and asked the class again, "Was the jar full?"

Well, by this time the students were starting to get the hang of it, and even though they weren't sure what was coming next, they said, "Probably not."

"All right," the professor said. Reached back underneath his desk, pulled out a bucket of sand and immediately began pouring that into the jar.

So imagine you've got this Mason jar overflowing with rocks, sand, and all this other stuff spilling out on the table to the point where there was literally not another inch of open space left.

After a few seconds the professor looked at the jar, looked back at the class, and quietly asked, "What's the lesson?"

Well you could have heard a pin drop, since everyone wanted to know what the Old Man was up to. Finally a hand went up in the back of the room, and rather sheepishly the student said, "You couldn't fit the rocks in if you put the other stuff in first."

Humm…you couldn't fit the rocks in if you put the other stuff in first.

Now what in the world does that have to do with real estate? In a word: everything.

If we think about the Mason jar as representing the total amount of time you have during the day, then the rocks are the things that are truly important in your life. That could be getting more listings, spending time with your family, or whatever the case may be.

The gravel are things that seem important, but usually only for a short period of time. While the sand is just the day-to-day minutia that was never really important to begin with.

If you were to examine your own "mason jar", how many Realtors would find that it's been filled up with all the sand life has to offer?

Paperwork, email, driving around town with unmotivated buyers are all examples of things taking us away from our rocks – or activities truly important to moving your business forward. So what happens?

You spend the first half of the day dealing with the minutia and the second half trying to catch up - which of course rarely happens. Resulting in the predictable consequence of working until 7 or 8pm that night, and still not feeling like you got any "real" work done.

I see this in my coaching clients all the time. Instead of doing things that were truly important to moving their business forward, they spent time doing things that were important to other people, or perhaps seemed important to them at the time.

Then they come home from work completely exhausted, knowing they were busy, but unable to point to any tangible gain.

Recommendation: Track your days work activities tomorrow, and at the end of the day write down the words rock, sand or gravel next to each one, based on how important that task is to the overall growth of your business.

As an example, your day might look like this:

• Answered email: Sand.
• Answered client email: Rock.
• Picked up the house after the kids went to school: Sand.
• Answered more email: Sand.
• Started some laundry: Sand.

Took Lunch

• Farmed local neighborhood with postcards: Rock.
• Handled several "emergency" calls with the Mortgage Broker: Gravel.
• Attended a networking event (and didn't sit with other Realtors®): Rock.
• Updated the website: Rock.

If you find more than 50 percent of your day spent engaged in "sand" or "gravel" related activities, then I recommend you take a serious look at how your spending your time and consider rearranging your day.

How about coming to the office an hour earlier so you can tackle some important projects before the phones start ringing? Or what about contracting an assistant, on a part time basis, who could handle some of the paperwork and other "office-related" activities?

I mean, let's face it: In the world of real estate, emergencies come up all the time, and they'll have tendency to take you off track from some of the "rock" activities you originally planned.

However, just because that's the case, doesn't mean it's OK to let it happen. Take ownership of the situation and get the important stuff done first, then you'll have time to handle everything else without feeling guilty or working until all hours of the night.

Bottom line: Stay focused on the things that are truly important to you, and never, ever, let the sand and gravel of life, fill up your jar.

Published: November 4, 2004

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As a popular speaker and author of the resource How to Get More Business in Today's Tough Market, Brian specializes in helping busy agents get more leads and close more deals - even in a market as "challenging" as this. For a free report on 2 Easy Ways to Get More Business in Today's Tough Market, just email my office and we'll send it right over.