The Theory Of Time Management: The Pickle Jar Theory

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We live in a world of numerous opportunities. Wherever we look, there is something to be done, something to be achieved, something to accomplish. In such a time of never-ending opportunities, the one thing that can old us back is time. Time is the critical resource that limits how much we can do, how many opportunities we can exploit and which ones we can delve into. If we view life as a flowchart of simultaneous processes, time is the bottle-neck which constricts the capacity of the entire system. We can only function as much as the time we have allows us to. Great ideas and drive are hollow concepts that do not matter if we do not have the time to execute them. In such a scenario where a single resource has such impact on our life, it is …show more content…

While the author of this theory remains anonymous, there are many adaptions of this theory that can be used to explain the concept of time management. This theory puts forward the idea that an individual has many different things that he needs to accomplish within a given time frame; some tasks are big while others are smaller; some tasks have very strict deadlines, while others are more flexible. In this analogy, we take a regular pickle jar and assume that the space within the jar represents the entire amount of time we have. First, we take the biggest rocks that we could possible put it in the jar and put in as many as we can. We then stand back and evaluate whether the jar is full, and will continue to do this after every step. Once no more of these rocks can be put in, we progress to fill the remaining gaps with small pebbles and gravel. Next, we use sand to further fill up the spaces that remain. Although now the jar is seemingly full now, we can still manage to pour water into the jar until it fills up all the nooks and crannies of the jar. Now when we evaluate whether the jar is full or not, we are quite confident that it is in fact full. In this theory, the big rocks signify those things that we prioritise the highest, and which hold the most importance for us. As we progress into each step, the importance and strictness in terms of deadline reduces. The …show more content…

Abraham Harold Maslow was an American professor of Psychology and formulated this Hierarchy of Needs as a theory which classified human needs into 5 categories in decreasing order of importance and increasing order of satisfaction: physiological, safety, belonging, esteem and self-actualization [5]. Keeping this theory and categorization in mind, time can be managed by devoting different chunks to different tiers of needs. While it is important to fulfil the lower rungs of needs to rise to the top ones, we can carefully and thoughtfully plan out how much time to devote to each tier to maximise our own satisfaction and delight. For instance, if we take earning money as an example: we first earn money to fulfil basic physiological and safety needs and then progress onto fulfilling higher needs. By demarcating time intervals and effort that needs to be put in to achieve each one of the needs in the separate levels, we can manage our time more effectively by taking an organised and methodical approach to goal fulfilment. We can clearly create a road map and follow this road map to boost our efficiency and

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