The Story That Changed How I See Time

June 9th, 2026

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Honestly, the last month has been one of the busiest I can remember. Projects stacking up, commitments pulling in different directions, the days moving faster than I'd like.

It's in those seasons that I find myself returning to a story I first came across years ago. It's simple, but it's the reminder I always need. And this week, I wanted to share it with you.

In a lecture hall, a professor walks in, sets nothing on the table except four things, and doesn't say a word.

A large glass jar, completely empty and clear.

A pile of big rocks, rough and heavy.

A pile of small pebbles.

And a pile of fine sand.

The students watch, not sure what's coming.

The professor picks up the rocks one by one and places them into the jar. Slowly, deliberately. When the last one goes in, he looks up at the room.

"Is the jar full?"

The students look at the jar. It looks full. They nod.

Without a word, he picks up the pebbles and pours them in. He turns the jar slightly, lets them find their way into the spaces the rocks left behind. He sets it down.

"Is it full now?"

They nod again, not sure where this is going.

He picks up the sand and pours it in steadily. It moves through everything, reaching the places nothing else could reach, until it settles at the very bottom.

He sets the jar down one final time.

"And now?"

The students nod again.

The professor looks at the jar for a moment, then back at the room.

"The jar is your life," he says.

"The rocks are what it's actually built on. Your health. The people you love most. Your sense of purpose. Your values. The work that genuinely matters to you. If you had only these things and nothing else, your life would still be full. These are the things worth protecting."

"The pebbles are meaningful but secondary. Your job. Your wider friendships. Your commitments and responsibilities. Real, but not the foundation."

"And the sand," he says, "is everything else. The busyness. The obligations you said yes to without thinking. The distractions that fill the hours without filling the life."

He pauses, then says two things that always stayed with me since I heard this story.

He said "first, the rocks are what makes your life full. The people who matter most to you. Your health. Your sense of purpose. That is already a complete life. You don't need the pebbles or the sand to feel like you have enough.

Second, if you pour the sand in first, the rocks will never fit. All the space will be taken. And if you look honestly at how most people spend their days, including myself sometimes if I'm not careful, the sand goes in first almost every time."

The first time I heard this story, it felt like a mirror. I thought about the weeks where I'd been incredibly busy but somehow hadn't touched the things I actually cared about. The people who I love in my life but yet kept getting the leftover version of me. The health habits I'd slowly let go when things got hectic.

For most of us, the sand is so easy to say yes to. And before you know it, the rocks are still sitting there, waiting for a turn that keeps getting delayed.

Here's what I invite you to do this week

Write down your rocks in your life. The ones that, if you protected them, you'd feel like you were living with intention.

Then look at your last seven days. Where did the time actually go? How much of it went to the rocks, how much to the pebbles, and how much to the sand?

That gap, between what you say matters and how you actually spend your time, is where the real work begins.

In our modern hectic lives, the jar fills up fast. It always does. The only question is what you choose to put in first.

To your success,

Laurie 🙌

​🎥 This Book Change How I Work​

If this story resonated with you, my video this week on Cal Newport's Deep Work takes it further. It's about how to actually protect the time and focus your rocks deserve, in a world that's designed to fill your jar with sand before you've even had your morning coffee.

You can watch the full video here.

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