Figuring out how to organize and prioritize your time can be challenging for business owners, especially when there are a lot of projects that need to be competed.
If you are not sure how or where to start, the Entrepreneurial Operating System™ (EOS) suggests starting with the highest-priority projects first. The highest priority projects are called your Rocks.
Rocks are clear, 90-day priorities defined by you and your leadership team, that lead you to your one-year goals. Everyone on your leadership team should understand what your Rocks are, and be able to articulate what they will look like once they are “done.”
Why Prioritize Your Rocks?
It’s human nature to want to get the easy or urgent stuff done and off your plate. But you’ll get to “done” faster by doing what is difficult first.
Think of your typical day as a glass cylinder, with rocks representing your main priorities, gravel representing your day-to-day responsibilities, sand representing interruptions, and water representing everything else that comes up during your day.
How would all of these elements best fit in the glass cylinder? If you added the sand, water and gravel first, what would happen when you added the rocks? Chances are it would overflow, symbolizing that there is not room in your typical day for your most important priorities, your Rocks.
But what would happen if you added the rocks first, followed by the gravel, sand and water? Taking on your tasks in this order would ensure the most important tasks, your Rocks, would fit in to your day, followed by the less-crucial ones. When you prioritize your Rocks, everything else falls into place.
The Magic of 90-Days
Much of EOS is set up in a 90-day world. Since 90 days is about as long as most humans can stay focused, implementing EOS’s concepts such as Rocks and the Quarterly Meeting Pulse, help businesses stay on track and achieve their goals.
When you are managing and refining your Rocks, EOS recommends the following tips:
- Get your Rocks right. Take the time to set the right Rocks for your business. If you don’t, you’ll waste a whole quarter going in the wrong direction.
- Rock mastery takes two quarters. You’ll make mistakes, so be patient with yourself. Once you’ve learned from two quarters, you can roll the Rocks process out to everyone else.
- Keep the commitment. Don’t lose your motivation as you work through the quarter. Start strong and finish strong.
- Less is more. Don’t choose too many Rocks, because it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Give people outside your leadership team no more than three Rocks.
The fast, easy and fun stuff will always be there waiting to be done. But if you prioritize your Rocks and complete them first, it will not only make those other tasks more fun, it will also move you faster in the right direction.
Do you need help managing and refining your Rocks? If so, contact us. We can help.
About EOS
EOS™ is a holistic management system with simple tools that help you do three things we call vision, traction, healthy. Vision from the standpoint of first getting your leaders 100% on the same page with where your organization is going. Traction from the standpoint of helping your leaders to become more disciplined and accountable, executing really well to achieve every part of your vision. Healthy meaning helping your leaders to become a healthy, functional, cohesive leadership team.
