cell cycle is made up of three main parts: interphase, mitosis, and cytokinesis. Most biologists agree that interphase makes up the period of time that a cell would be preparing for cell division. Cells spend the majority of their lives in this stage. During interphase a cell is going to be growing, replicating its genetic material and essentials to carry out cell division, and proofreading the genetic material to ensure replication has occurred correctly. This doesn’t sound like much, but it’s actually the longest part of the cell cycle. Once this is complete, the cell will then go through cell division and, theoretically, split into two new cells (cytokinesis).
How cytokinesis works will depend upon the type of cell that is dividing. Here is an image that summarizes the differences in cytokinesis in plant cells and animal cells, which is the classic example used in many introductory biology courses:
