The Department of Practical Sunshine celebrates the arrival of spring and all that it brings (except, maybe, for the high pollen counts)!

While a lot of ink gets spilled about New Year’s Resolutions, I do not believe January is the best time to set goals—it’s hard to feel inspired during the time our bodies are telling us to rest. (Apologies to my southern hemisphere readers for the northern hemisphere centricity!)

So for many, spring feels like the more appropriate time to, well, spring into action: what are the projects, goals, and planning that you (or your team/department/organization) want and need to do?

Specificity around what you want to accomplish is an important first step; this includes knowing your “why” and also your “what” but just as critically, the “why now/by when.”

Without a time element, a goal is incomplete. Not to feed into busy-ness culture but to help figure out if we’re putting our resources towards the things we truly value.

That said, fixed deadlines may create a sense of rigidity that doesn’t always work; as the saying goes, the only thing that never changes is that everything is always changing.

So rather than working with chronological markers such as 3/6/9 months, or Q2/Q3, many of my clients have appreciated the “loose fixedness” (fixed looseness?) of the “Now, Next, Later” model.

Items that go in the NOW sphere are top priority. This is where you should be focusing your resources (time, money, energy). Right. Now.

(For folks that are familiar with the Urgent/Important Grid, aka Eisenhower Box, aka Covey Matrix, it is the upper left corner.)

This first sphere is reserved for what is ready for immediate action, what needs to happen in real time and/or in the very near future.

People often have a hard time winnowing down their NOW items (we’ve talked about the false sense of urgency before). Which is where the NEXT sphere comes in.

NEXT items will be slotted into the NOW as soon as there’s an opening. Take time to define them enough so that they feel clear but do not take the step of specifically allocating resources to achieve them. That will happen once they move.

Finally, we have the LATER sphere. These are for items that can’t happen until some of the NOW and NEXT things have been completed. They are also for things that would be in the realm of hopes, desires, or wishes.

These are important and deserve to be recognized (never abandon your dreams!) but may not be ready for prime time (NOW) or the “on deck circle” (NEXT).

This is a living, breathing model: check back regularly, remember that sometimes good enough is good enough, and live in the now (since now is always all we really have 😉).

Happy Spring!

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