Lucia smiled. “Now watch.” She emptied the jar and started over. First, she placed the big rocks inside. Then she poured the gravel, which trickled into the spaces around the rocks. Finally, she added the sand, which filled the remaining gaps. Everything fit.
“Now,” she said, “try adding the big rocks.” primero lo primero stephen covey pdf
Mateo realized he had been living in what Covey calls “Quadrant I” (urgent and important) and “Quadrant III” (urgent but not important). He needed to spend more time in “Quadrant II” — activities that are important but not urgent: planning, relationship building, self-renewal. Lucia smiled
The next Monday, he blocked two hours every morning for his top three “rocks” before checking email. Within a month, his productivity and peace of mind had transformed. If you’d like a visual of Covey’s Time Management Matrix or a list of practical exercises from First Things First , just ask. Then she poured the gravel, which trickled into
“You see?” Lucia said. “ Primero lo primero — first things first. If you don’t schedule your biggest priorities first, the small and urgent will always crowd them out.”
“Mateo,” she said, “pretend this jar is your life.”
One weekend, his elderly mentor, Lucia, invited him to her garden. She placed a large empty glass jar on a table, along with a pile of big rocks, a bucket of gravel, and a container of fine sand.