It’s that time of year when we all feel rejuvenated and ready to get growing new things. That might be a new hobby, a new sport, or a new garden. When planting out your spring garden, you need to consider many things to be successful. An abundant garden requires preparation, seeds, and tending.

In your garden, there may be urgent matters to deal with like drought, groundhogs, or hail. And there are the important things to deal with as well, such as fertilizing, deadheading, and pruning. Whether drought or fertilizer issues, a successful garden requires managing.

Let’s begin by understanding the difference between urgent and important. In your personal and professional life, urgent things demand immediate attention while important things can speak quietly, but contribute to vision, mission, and purpose. Urgent things might be health emergencies or fire, flood, computers crashing. Important things can look like quality family time, nurturing friendships, prayer, and meditation. Thinking about your future and planning for it is also important. 

When something you are about to do is Urgent and Important, it is what we call a Crisis or Problem. When we think ahead and plan for success, we create fewer crises that need immediate attention. 

Just like in the garden, our days are filled with nonproductive and unenjoyable activities like email, unnecessary meetings, interruptions, and looking for lost communications or keys. We also waste valuable time on Netflix and social media and mindless scrolling, which is numbing but rarely meaningful. 

Take control of your personal and professional time by learning to say no to unfulfilling time wasters and yes to things that matter — whether they are urgent or not. Let’s simplify, eliminate, delegate, and outsource the activities that distract us.

Just like gardening, when we neglect to do the cultivation of a good life — the preparation, planning, delegating, and relationship building — the crises grow. We live in reactive mode, not really living our best lives. We spend more time pulling weeds and less time picking fruit. 

Here’s a quick garden plan: Be sure your goals are written down and communicated with your team so they can support you; we all do better with accountability. Once you have decided where you want to end up, set a plan and prepare for the roadblocks because you will encounter them and get tripped up. Knowing that this will happen and being ready gives you the tools to overcome.

Lastly, track your progress against your original goals every quarter. Reward yourself when you’re on track or see where you are derailed and get back on track quickly. 

Starting a new routine takes practice, do not forget to add a trowel of grace for your mistakes. When you focus on the important and plan for your goals, you encounter fewer crises and can then spend even more time on making meaningful memories. 

Learn more at Achievement Unlimited.