“Who could love a pebble in their shoe?” One of the harshest lines ever said in a movie from the movie Ever After is what comes to my mind when I think about pebbles. But, what if Pebbles were what we should be thinking about in our Pilates business? What if theoretical pebbles were what would propel your business forward? Well, my Pilates instructors and Pilates studio owners I am here to share that you should be more concerned about making room for pebbles than you have been.

One of the questions I am often asked is “How do you do it all?” And, to be perfectly frank I don’t exactly know what “do it all” means. I do happen to do a lot of things. And, to the outsider, it may seem like I am some sort of magician or more special or lucky because I can “do it all.” But, while I would say I am quite unique as a human my ability to do it all has nothing to do with my uniqueness. It has everything to do with my time management.

There are many ways to manage your time. A lot are obvious and some are not so obvious. I go over a lot of those not-so-talked-about ways specifically for Pilates and fitness pros in my Agency group. But, just in case you’re not ready to completely bite the bullet and tackle your time management techniques here is one tried and true way that will help you create more time growing your business and less time keeping your business and life status quo. If you’re ready to talk about growth aka pebbles read on!

Picture a mason jar. It’s empty and its lid is laying next to it. Also, next to the jar is three piles, rocks, sand, and pebbles. They will all fit in the jar if they go in the correct order. Put them in the wrong order and the lid won’t fit.

So, what goes in first? Well, you need to know what they represent to figure it out.

The Rocks symbolize appointments. These are your sessions, your client’s sessions, meetings etc. These are the things that can only happen when they happen. I do excellent thinking at 4:30 am but not many clients want 4:30 am sessions. So, my rocks go in the schedule where only rocks can go- When I am teaching or taking sessions

The sand represents admin. You know the stuff you don’t want to do but you have to do. There is nothing creative or exciting about admin. This is the bills, the emails, the mail, the blah blah blah.

Pebbles are anything that propels your business forward. This can be the marketing, promotions, or advertising you keep saying you’re going to do but then get too busy doing other stuff (ahem SAND) to get to it. It’s also the scary stuff. You don’t know the answer to kind of stuff. But, the stuff that gets you excited about what could be if it worked out!

So, what order should these piles go in the jar?

Grab a blank calendar.

Write in your rocks first. Then your Pebbles!!!!! Finally the Sand.

Yep, that is the order! You should be focusing on what propels your business forward before you deal with the humdrum of the admin.

Be honest, you can deal with bill pay while binging out on Netflix.

You can clean the studio while listening to your favorite podcast.

But, you can’t be creative on a newsletter while you’re watching your favorite TV show.

You can’t research ways to market your business while listening to a mystery thriller.

When you are working on the stuff that will level up you and your business it needs to be scheduled and that time should be protected.

When will you work on your pebbles this week?

xx~LL