One common refrain we hear in the modern times from people is that they are very busy. Everyone has one thing in common, that is 24 hours a day. How each individual uses the same number of hours is what matters. Hard work is not an option to achieve something in life, but smart work is! Smart work is when we work very hard and we are able to accomplish more work, in lesser time, with better results, and with optimized use of available resources. If Hard Work and Smart Work are the two sides of the same coin, Prioritization is the strong metal holding either sides together. Once there was a demonstration by a teacher in a university. The teacher had a big glass beaker and filled it with large stones and asked the students, ‘If the beaker was full?’ The class responded immediately with a ‘YES’. The teacher then picked some small pebbles and added to the beaker and it could take it. The teacher again asked the class, ‘If the beaker was full’? The class again responded with a ‘yes’. The teacher picked a packet full of sand and poured into the beaker and the beaker could accommodate it. Teacher again asked the class, ‘If the beaker was full’? This time students were hesitant to say yes and they were right…Teacher pulled up a water bottle and poured water into the beaker. It was not a surprise that the whole bottle of water could fill into the beaker. The teacher then asked the students, ‘What did you learn from this?’. The message is loud and clear from this experiment that, in our day to day activity, there would be many tasks. The smartness is in putting the big stones first, in other words prioritizing and attending to important ones first and then life can accommodate many more things by still being efficient. On the other hand, if the beaker was filled with water first, even an addition of a small pebble would end up with overflow of water. First Things First, that’s the way to get smarter… This reminds me of a wonderful book ‘First Things First’ by Stephen R Covey and his quote “Effective Leadership is putting First Things First. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out”. image courtesy: www.huffingtonpost.com