This was the biggest takeaway I got from the book “The Fringe Hours”, that I hadn’t really thought about before. The author talked about quitting a Bible study because it wasn’t the right time/season for it, even though it was important and valuable to her. I loved that perspective – that something could be really important and part of your core values, but RIGHT NOW might just not be a good time to include that activity and you could revisit it later.

@Cloud – weeding can be satisfying. And yes, the act of a simple check in can do a lot. Does my schedule look like I want it to? If not, what can I do about it? These questions go a long way.

(And how fun to see I left a comment on that post on your blog — I have been reading you for a while!)

@Jennie – very true – it’s quite possible to let someone else plant your garden. But probably not the wisest approach.

That probably says something deep about me…. Anyway, when I first gave my time management workshop, one of the activities that people really liked was the one where I had them list their long term and medium term priorities, and then look at their time logs for the last week (if they’d done them- otherwise, just think back on how they’d spent their time) and see if they were spending time on their priorities. I think that exercise works for the same reason your gardening metaphor does: it focuses us in on what we want to “grow” with our time.
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One more gardening lesson for life: be open to surprises. One of the best thing about the small container garden that I planted this year has been the volunteer tomato plants that popped up. I confess I didn’t recognize the first one and pulled it out. Luckily for me, four more came up! (I used our compost in the planting soil mix… I guess we compost a lot of past their prime tomatoes….)