Hello hello,

This past week I was helping a yoga student stand up from a backbend.

One of the things we discussed is that you want your head and arms to come up last—that you don’t fling your head and arms upward and hope the rest of your body follows. You begin by getting your pelvis over your legs.

I recognize that some of you may be thinking, “Why on earth is Frances writing about this? I have no interest in standing up from a backbend.”

Understood.

It was on my mind because it reminded me of my biggest takeaway from Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”:

If you put big rocks in a bucket first you can add innumerable small rocks around them; but if you begin by filling your bucket with small rocks, the big rocks will never fit.

Move the big rocks first = Move the heaviest bits of your body first.

You get my thinking?

So, if you have no interest in standing up from a backbend but you do want to run a productive meeting, organize an effective team or simply have a super-productive day, decide at the outset what your biggest rocks (or heaviest bones) are.

Because when you move those first, everything else fits in around—or follows them.

And any other choice ends with you falling backward.

For more on business lessons from a yoga mat, check out, “Get Up in Your Own Business.”