What's in your jar of rocks?

I was chatting with a friend recently who felt they weren't doing enough at work. Everyone on their team is underwater and just trying to keep up, but they all have more to do than any team really should have. Familiar story, right?

Prioritization is forever an ongoing battle in your career and something I have grappled with as an individual contributor and engineering leader. Today I'm going to give you an analogy you may have heard before, but perhaps not in this application: the jar of life. I first heard of this from Stephen R Covey.

Picture this

You have in front of you an empty jar. Next to that jar you have a pile of sand, a pile of pebbles, and a pile of big rocks. I would illustrate this for you, but I couldn't illustrate myself out of a paper bag, so you'll have to use your imagination.

These piles represent 3 things:

• Big rocks: Your most important critical path projects or tasks. These may be specific features that need to be built, addressing something reaching end-of-life, or critical conversations you need to have.
• Pebbles: Not as important, but still useful tasks to get done. These may be updating or expanding on documentation for a feature that's already live, finding opportunities for improved team efficiency, or conducting research for a problem that's not quite ready for prime time.
• Sand: These are small tasks that don't really carry much weight. These are the fun 1:1s with people outside of your team, organizing your inbox, or attending an optional meeting.

What's most important to you is likely going to be different from what's most important to me, but this is an excellent exercise to think through at the beginning of each week.

Now, picture putting these various piles of rocks and sand in your jar. You'll notice some critical takeaways:

1. If you start with sand, you won't have as much room for small and big rocks.
2. If you prioritize small rocks, you won't have room for the big rocks.
3. If you start with big rocks, small rocks and sand can fill into the jar around the big rocks.
4. Not every rock is going to fit in the jar at the same time.

Knowing you can't do everything and not every task is of equal importance, you can better prioritize your workweek and workday to make sure you're maximizing the space available in your jar.