Creating Margin in Life

It is not uncommon to hear the response “Busy!” when asking, “How have you been?” Busyness is commonplace in our culture. If you have a few spare moments to sit and relax, you may notice that you begin to question whether you have forgotten about something. Our calendars have been filled with activities, appointments, meetings, and to-do lists. There is really only one word to describe this situation… OVERWHELMING!

Margin allows our life to become a little less overwhelming. Think about the notebook paper you used to use in school. Those little red lines around all four sides of the paper gave you guidelines and boundaries of where your writing should stay. Those are the margins of your paper. Margins are the extra of something that can be used if/when needed. If you needed a little more space to finish writing a word on a line, you would continue past that little red line and use a little extra space. The same can be put in place in our life.

Think about times when you have scheduled appointments, activities, etc. back to back. While you may have accounted for drive-time, did you leave margin for getting stopped by every red light in town, road construction, or an accident? You were probably “okay” with your schedule being full that day but became frustrated, un-hinged, and/or anxious at the hint of one thing taking up too much time. That’s because you were using every bit of time you had and did not put margin in place.

Looking at the definition of “margin,” there are two things that are necessary for margin to take place: “extra” and “if/when needed.” In order to have extra of something, it has to be planned and not depleted on a regular basis. If something is used, it has to be replaced. That allows for the “extra” to be available when you need it. If we take the example of a full-day of appointments again, while time was allowed for the appointments and the drive-time, no extra was available. We know that extra of something is going to be needed in our lives when we think about time, energy, finances, etc. That means we have to plan for it and know that a time is coming when we will need the extra. It is the extra that allows for an opportunity to re-evaluate and move forward with a plan.

Margin may look different in different areas of our lives. In schedules, it may mean spreading out appointments, allowing for extra time between events, or scheduling time for yourself. In finances, you can create margin by having a savings account or an emergency fund. This is money that is set aside for when disaster hits on a winter’s night and your furnace isn’t working. Other areas needing margin in your life may include your energy, self-care, etc. You may have to schedule time on a regular basis to do something that is rejuvenating for you and restores your energy level.

Steps to take to make changes:

• Be honest with yourself. Evaluate all areas in your life. Where do you feel stressed? You are probably feeling stressed or overwhelmed because you do not have margin in that area.
• Take action. What would it take to put margin back into those areas of your life? You may need to start blocking out time where you do not schedule anything until you get the hang of creating margin in your schedule. Maybe you need to set up a separate bank account and have a portion of your paycheck direct deposited into that account.
• Re-evaluate. There will be times when you have to use your margin, but you have to make sure you are not using it up on a consistent basis. Take time every so often to evaluate all areas in your life again and see if you gave up the margin you had created. You may have to take steps to put margin back into your life if you see that it was used up.