Priorities and Focus

 















This year my wife and I had to make important decisions on where we would focus most of our time working on our yard and how we would allocate the available money in order to entertain between 150 and 200 people at our daughter's graduation party in June. Mother's Day Weekend was a good time to start planting the flowers. The chance of a cold frost was less likely, which would kill newly planted flowers. In addition to that we had to:

• wash the vinyl fence
• wash the deck
• place the lawn and deck furniture
• patch up the fountain which was leaking
• dispose of some debris not so hidden behind the shed
• clean out the garden beds of weeds
• put the cover on the gazebo
• put up our portable tent
• order tents, chairs, and a dance floor
• contract a DJ, etc.

And that was just for the outside of the house! We choose to do as little as possible in the front yard beyond having the grass cut, edging up the beds and trimming the shrubbery. We decided not to plant any flowers in the front yard, at least not before the graduation party since everyone would be in the backyard anyway. I did a little work outside everyday it didn't rain. The end result is that we met our deadline by setting priorities and then focusing on each task one at a time.

In life you will have to set and adjust priorities everyday! So it is a good idea to identify what is important to you, and then prioritize all tasks and activities required to meet your clearly, defined and written goals. Then you want to focus and work on getting them done! There will be many distractions and other things competing for your attention along the way.  You just have to stay focused. And when you are done you will enjoy the celebration!