This was presented at one of the circuit assemblies I attended (15-17 years ago). I thought it was a good illustration and actually motivated me to stay in for a while a longer.
Imagine my surprise when 10 or 12 years later, after leaving the org and changing to a better career, I was participating in a corporate training program, when the EXACT same demonstration was used to illustrate how time management works:
One demonstration that Covey likes to make is pouring sand into a jar. Then he holds up a few larger rocks and shows that there is no more room in the jar for the big rocks. First, you put the bigger, more important, rocks in the jar. Only then do you add whatever sand will fill in the space.
Similarly, most people live their lives not doing what is really most important to them, but rather they do whatever issue is pressing them the most at present. Often, upon reflection we see that the issues that are so strongly consuming our time do not warrent the large mental energy and time we devote to them. They are like the sand preventing us from focusing upon what is important to us.
The two above quotes were taken from:
http://www.bainvestor.com/SevenHabits.html
My corporate trainer gave credit to Steven Covey for the training concept. You already know that the Watchtower gave no credit to anyone for the illustration that they plagerized.
-Aude.