Imagine walking into a room and on a table is a bucket. Beside it are three very large rocks, about six smaller rocks, about a dozen pebbles, and a pile of sand. Now imagine that you’re asked to place each of those things in the bucket in a specific order, and explain why.

The explanation, according to most business school professors who enjoy this analogy, is simple: each of those items represents the priorities in your life. With that in mind, you place the large rocks in first, as these represent your big goals – healthy family, better job, bigger house, for instance – followed by the medium priorities or smaller rocks. You get the idea. The pebbles, then the sand come next. But guess what? If you don’t have enough room for all the pebbles and sand, you stop filling the bucket.

If this analogy sounds familiar, it’s because it mirrors what 7 Habits of Highly Effective People guru Stephen Covey advocates as his third habit: put first things first. This not only means organizing your priorities in size order, but also knowing when to say no.

“First things are those things you, personally, find of most worth,” Covey says. That’s it. Of course, in Covey’s world, the third habit is in context of the other habits you ought to follow. But in your world, take a moment to think about what you’re currently putting first.

Chances are, you’re dumping smaller rocks and pebbles into that bucket – maybe even some sand – before you’ve even thought about the big rocks. One recommended exercise: try to identify what the pebbles and sand are in your life. Often, these are little things that can wait, or demands others are making on your time that you can perhaps push aside. Think about it.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Even if you’ve never heard an off-duty flight attendant vent — and trust us, it’s a pleasure — it probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn that one of a flight attendant’s biggest, perpetual problems is the inability to get passengers to switch off their cellphones before take-off.

If you’ve seen FA’s having to do this on a flight, you can imagine it’s stressful for them, just as it’s stressful for the other fliers watching. One would think it also would have to be stressful for the callers forcing themselves to cram or text in that last bit of business.

Frequent business traveler and Allbusiness.com blogger Ken Walker, recognizing that he had enough stress in his life, decided that at a certain point before he even boarded he was going to stop trying to work and unplug, employing a strategy he calls “board with a book.”

While at the airport waiting to board Walker says ” I use my electronic calendar to set email and phone ‘deadlines’ based on my flight time, and I discipline myself to shut the phone OFF a half hour prior to boarding time. I stow all gadgetry and gear in my carry-on with the single exception of a book I’m reading. I’ll go off to a corner of the waiting area somewhere to read until they call to board.  When it’s my turn, I’ll simply scan my boarding pass, walk on, stow my bag, sit, buckle up, and continue reading.  I don’t dig through my stuff for an iPod or other gadgetry until we’re well on our way.  Walk on, sit down, and read. That’s it.”

Since he began living this strategy Walker has witnessed the all-too-typical confrontations between FA’s and passengers convinced that the phone calls they’re on are too critical to be ended, one time hearing a passenger bark at an FA, “This call is crucial to the survival of my company!” Says Walker, “if there’s anything so important that it cannot wait a few hours, and it demands your immediate attention on a cell phone, you probably should take the next flight anyway.” We couldn’t agree more.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Dig deeply into 4-Hour Workweek guru Tim Ferriss’ trove of advice and you’re bound to come up with some DIY potions, one of which he takes up in his post 4 Anti-Cold Cocktails That Work: From Ancient China to German Alcoholics and Modern Labs.

For our purposes, the cocktail that seems most practical, given its ease of preparation and low-maintenance ingredients, is what Ferriss describes as the Chinese cure.

You’ll need fresh ginger as well as the peel from one orange. Cut and mash the ginger, boil it for 20 minutes, and add the orange peel (cut up into sections) for 10 more minutes of boiling. Strain it and drink up.

Ferriss says a bit of honey may take the edge off the strong taste of the brew, about which he says “for me [it] cuts symptoms like sore throat and sinus pain by at least 50% over 24 hours.”

Image source: böhringer friedrich via Wikimedia Commons

During those moments when we’re applying some SPF-laden product on our skin we often recall that we’ve quite literally gotten burned in the past by failing to cover certain spots. The thing is, we often remember what some of them are, but it isn’t until it’s too late that we realize we didn’t catch them all.

Howstuffworks.com staff writer Molly Edmonds reported on the five spots we often miss when we’re putting on sunscreen and they bear repeating because even if you’ve always been somewhat diligent about lathering or spraying your own skin, you may find yourself struggling to be thorough if you happen to be a harried parent, uncle, or camp counselor with the unenviable task of applying and reapplying lotion on kids, especially kids in considerable quantities.

The five spots we often miss:

1) Behind the knees, where a burn can make every step torture.

2) Our feet, particularly the tops, since we as sunbathers often don’t want sand sticking to those areas; Edmonds says that “according to the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons, skin cancer on the foot often goes unnoticed because people don’t check their feet as diligently as they check other body parts.”

3) Our hands – again the tops of our hands and, interestingly, “UV rays can damage the fingernails,” Edmonds says.

4) The ears: Notes Edmonds, “skin cancer cells appear on all parts of the ear, including in the rims and bowls that may seem to be protected from the sun.”

5) The scalp. This is perhaps the hardest sell for coverage, especially if you have hair. Which is why those brazenly overpriced cans of spray sunscreen are worth having – misting your and your loved ones’ scalp is fairly effortless if you have one of those cans in hand.

Image source: Steve and Jem Copley via Wikimedia Commons