ProductivityGoal Setting

First Things First

Stephen Covey, A. Roger Merrill, and Rebecca R. Merrill

Covey and the Merrills extend the 7 Habits framework into a system organized around roles and priorities rather than tasks and schedules. Its jar demonstration — rocks, gravel, and sand — is why selection sequence matters: big rocks placed first let the rest settle around them; placed last, they don't fit. The Quarterly Operating System uses this in Chapter 2 to justify pre-quarter loading and in Chapter 5 to open the Priority Cut.