Kim Black takes Stephen Covey's Rocks-Pebbles-Sand analogy about first things first to the next logical step. Agile Business Navigator: Boulders, Rocks and Pebbles
Have you ever felt trapped by a business situation, it saps your energy, weighs you down and has grown far beyond being enjoyable? Yet, you still continue to participate in it, you fear its demise, you depend on it for cash or some other value. Going back to the boulders, rocks and pebbles. Stephen Covey tells us to get a jar (metaphorically speaking), put in the big rocks, then the smaller rocks and the tiniest rocks. In life, this equates to putting the important things first. Let's take it another step. By leaving in rocks that no longer serve us, we leave out room for the important things. (emphasis mine)