Last week we were privileged to have Todd Henry, author of “The Accidental Creative” come and speak to our year-end retreat.  This retreat is a time for our agency to stop all the things we are doing for the clients we love, and take a day and half to re-energize ourselves, sort our priorities, reflect on what has been accomplished in the year past and brainstorm what we can do to make 2013 an even better year for our clients and ourselves.

One of the subjects Todd spoke about was the idea of pruning our lives occasionally so that the creative things we are working on will bear the most fruit.  As an agency President, my life is full of creative opportunities—work-related, social, philanthropic and family.   Thus, Todd’s idea of getting more done by doing less spoke to me.

His premise is this “learn to say “no” to opportunities and projects – that don’t align with the important work that you’re doing.  He suggests we sit down once a month with our calendars and to-do lists and prune the things that are taking away from our ability to excel at those most important things.

Regular and consistent pruning is a simple concept but difficult to do in a world where how busy you are is often the measuring stick for success.

In fact, this concept of pruning has its roots in the Bible.  Jesus understood time management, too.  He talks about pruning as it relates to spiritual fruit in Matthew 15:1-11.

Let’s do some pruning people.  Just think what we might accomplish with time, energy and focus on those things that make the biggest differences in our lives and those of our clients.