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Oh, I only have 15 minutes, I haven’t reached the last part of the exam which will give me more marks…. What I will do?

I am on my mock exam which is done as a practice for the students as a preparation for the main exam. And I am sure that I will fail on this as I haven’t touched the high scoring part. I begged the teacher please give me 10 more minutes but without any mercy she pulled the paper from me and left the room.

Yes, I learned one of the important lessons in life, Time will not wait for anybody. I am sure that some of you had similar problems like me in Managing the time which is one of the difficult tasks in the modern world.

Today is the day I will get my answer sheet with my score, I was relaxed and was sure that I will not pass my exam as many of the high scoring parts are untouched. Teacher is calling my Name Rajend 15 out of 50, wow what a great score I will surely get chocolates from my dad today. Instead of anger I saw curiousness in my teachers’ eyes, she called me near her and asked, why didn’t you answer the descriptive questions? I answered teacher I was beginning from objective type, and lost time in ensuring the correct answer and I had only studied one out of the three chapters as I started my studies on the day before the exam. Teacher said ?“meet me in the staff room today after the classes.”

I was sure that I will either get the marks of sleeping line in my body or she will tell me to bring my parents next day. But surprisingly she gave me a chocolate and told a story of a professor who explained the management of time using rocks, pebbles and sand.

The professor told his students to fill rocks, pebbles and sand in one jar and they failed to do it. Then the professor explained - fill rocks first as it’s the most important one for you, then the pebbles and last the sand thereby filling all those in the jar. If you try to fill Sand or Pebbles first, you will not be able to do the task of filling the jar.

Teacher explained the?rocks?are equivalent to your studies now in your life the?most important plans?and things such as spending time with your family and?maintaining proper health. The?pebbles?represent the things in your life that matter, but that you could live without like Playing and Travel. the?sand?represents, remaining filler things in your life like Watching TV, playing video games.

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The time again is running but this time I was the first person to hand over my answer sheet to the teacher, she accepted with a smile and said, “I am sure that you have identified your rocks Rajend”.

I realized my mistakes and worked on to identify my Rocks and prioritized it, the pebbles where considered after that and sand at last. I started to practice the same from my question papers answering the questions from bottom to top where I prioritized the high scoring questions, then the short answers and last the objective questions.

??In the modern world urgency is in par with importance, here we can use the 4 quadrants referred by Stephen R Covey on his book the 7 habits of highly effective people “ Put first things first” and organizing and prioritizing your tasks according to its importance and urgency.

Important and Urgent. This quadrant includes a crisis, pressing problems, deadline-driven projects, and meeting preparations. These should be completed today. If these are not done today, there will be serious consequences.

Important, but Not Urgent. (Preparations, Presentations, Planning, Relationship Building, True Recreation, Empowerment) – These should be done soon. It would be nice to do these today; but they can be put off for a later time. If these are not completed, nothing significant will happen.

Urgent, but Not Important. (Interruptions, some phone calls, some mail, some reports, some meetings, many close pressing matters, many popular activities) – There is not a set time frame. These are “nice to do” items. If these items are not done, nothing significant will happen.

Not Urgent and Not Important. (Trivia, busywork, junk mail, some phone calls, time thieves, “escape” activities) – These items are your time eaters.

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“Time isn't the main thing. It’s the only thing”

Miles Davis

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