How to manage your time better...

I found this interesting story from a preaching by Fr. Cantallamessa to the Pope and the cardinals of the roman curia. How to manage your time better? hahaha actually this shouldn't be the title. But you will understand after you read through:

--- excerpt from http://www.zenit.org/article-27770?l=english

I read somewhere a story that it seems to me applies in an exemplary way to priests. One day, an old professor was called as expert to speak on the more efficient planning of their time to the higher cadres of some large North American companies.
 
He decided then to attempt an experiment. Standing up, he took from under the table a large empty glass. At the same time he also took a dozen large stones like tennis balls that he deposited delicately one by one in the glass until it was full. When no more stones could be added, he asked his pupils: "Do you think the glass is full?" and they all answered "Yes!"
 
He bent down again and took out from under the table a box full of crushed stones which he poured over the large stones, moving the glass so that the crushed stones could infiltrate between the large stones to the bottom. "Is the glass full this time?", he asked. Becoming more prudent, the pupils began to understand and answered: "Perhaps not yet." The old professor bent down again and took out this time a small bag of sand that he poured into the glass. The sand filled the spaces between the stones and the crushed stones. Then he asked again: "Is the glass full now?" And all without hesitation answered: "No!" In fact, the old man took the decanter that was on the table and poured the water into the glass to the brim.
 
At this point he asked: "What great truth does this experiment show us? The most audacious replied: "This demonstrates that even when our agenda is completely full, with a bit of good will, we can always add some new endeavor, something else to do." "No," answered the professor. "What the experiment demonstrates is that if one does not put the large stones first in the glass, one will never succeed in making them go in afterward." "What are the large stones, the priorities, in our life? The important thing is to put these large stones first in your agenda."
 
Saint Peter pointed out, once and for all, which are the large stones, the absolute priority, of the apostles and of their successors, bishops and priests: "But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word" (Acts 6:4).
 
We priests, more than anyone else, are exposed to the danger of sacrificing what is important for the urgent. Prayer, the preparation of the homily or for Mass, study and formation, are all important things, but not urgent; if they are postponed, apparently, the world does not collapse, while there are so many little things -- a meeting, a phone call, a material task -- which are urgent. Thus one ends up by postponing systematically the important things to a "later" that never arrives.
 
For a priest, to put the large stones first in the glass, can mean very concretely, to begin the day with time for prayer and dialogue with God, so that the activities and different commitments do not end up by taking up all the space.
 
I end with a prayer of abbot Chautard: "O God, give the Church so many apostles, but revive in their heart an ardent thirst for intimacy with You and at the same time a desire to work for the good of their neighbor. Give all a contemplative activity and an active contemplation." So be it!

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Where have we put our prayer life? Do we put the little stones first that we do not have time to pray? or do we put our prayer life first so that we still have time for other things?