Big Rocks Theory
The Big Rocks Theory is an approach to time management and prioritization that suggests prioritising around a small number of important things to ensure that they get done, rather than trying to achieve the maximum number of tasks in a specific period.
Big Rocks Stephen Covey
Big Rocks Metaphor
The Big Rock Theory was introduced by Stephen Covey in First Things First, where he credits the metaphor to an unnamed seminar instructor (“One of our associates shared this experience: I attended a seminar once where the instructor was lecturing on time…”).
The fictitious instructor asked filled up a large jar with “fist-sized” rocks and asked the seminar participants “Is the jar full?”. Once the participants agreed that the jar was full, the instructor added gravel to the jar, shaking it until the gravel filled in the spaces between the big rocks. Then he added sand, which fit in between the gravel. Then the instructor poured water into the jar.
“Well, what’s the point?”
Somebody said, “Well, there are gaps, and if you really work at it, you can always fit more into your life.”
“No,” he said, “that’s not the point. The point is this: if you hadn’t put these big rocks in first, would you ever have gotten any of them in?”
– Stephen Covey, First Things First
From a prioritization or product management perspective, the metaphor uses rocks, gravel, sand and water to represent different tasks, with the item size proportional to importance. Covey uses this metaphor to illustrate the importance of choosing a small number of “big rocks” for an initiative, or a milestone of a product, ensuring that important things get achieved, and that other less important tasks do not distract too much from the critically important achievements.
With the “more is better” paradigm, we’re always trying to fit more activities into the time we have. But what does it matter how much we do if what we’re doing isn’t what matters most?
– Stephen Covey, First Things First
Big Rock Meaning
Covey suggests that the big rocks are activities from “The Quadrant of Quality” (or “Quadrant II”), referring to the segment of the Eisenhower Matrix for tasks that are important, but not urgent.
Our Quadrant II goals are like the “big rocks.” If we put other activities — the water, sand, and gravel — in first, and then try to fit the big rocks in, not only will they not fit, we’ll end up making a pretty big mess in the process. But if we know what the big rocks are and put them in first, it’s amazing how many of them we can put in — and how much of the sand, gravel, and water fits in between the spaces. Regardless of what else actually does fit in, the key point is that the big rocks — our Quadrant II goals — are in first.
– Stephen Covey, First Things First
In the 4 Disciplines of Execution, Mcchesney, Covey and Huling contrast “Widely important goals” with the “Whirlwind”, urgent tasks that are necessary for the daily operations and the survival of an organization, as both types of tasks “compete relentlessly for time, resources, energy and attention”. The authors warn that leaders must differentiate between those two types of tasks, because getting lost in day-to-day operations makes it difficult to “execute anything new”
When urgency and importance clash, urgency will win every time.
– Chris Mcchesney, Sean Covey and Jim Huling, The 4 Disciplines of Execution, 2nd Edition
Covey’s Big Rocks directly relate to “Widely Important Goals”, and choosing those first ensures that the day-to-day urgent tasks do not distract from moving forward, and that people working on an initiative know clearly what are the critical things to achieve.
Big Rocks Analogy
Using Big Rocks for prioritization
The Big Rocks Analogy can be useful as a visual metaphor for alignment, particularly in larger teams or organizations where lots of initiatives happen in parallel. In Measure What Matters, John Doerr gives an example from YouTube, where Shishir Mehrotra used this metaphor to bring “focus to the whole company”, combining the Big Rocks Theory with Objectives and Key Results.
People did their own things and let a thousand flowers bloom, but no one could identify the top-level OKRs. Now leadership was saying “All of your ideas are wonderful. But could we please identify a few of them as our big rocks for this quarter and for the year? After that, everyone at YouTube knew our top priorities. All of our big rocks would make it into the jar.
By requiring stakeholders to choose only a small number of “big rocks”, this metaphor achieves a similar effect to Christmas prioritisation.