Margins

Every third grader knows the importance of margins. You are learning to write and the teacher stresses how you need to have a margin on the right side of your paper. You are so conscious of margins that you start hyphenating any word that comes at the end of the line, even if it is only four letters long.

One of the classic lines in "A Christmas Story" is when Ralphie's teacher returns the Christmas themes to the class:

All right, class.
I have your Christmas themes for you.
I'm pleased.
In general, you did very well.
However, I was disappointed in the margins.

If you Google "margin", you get a lot of hits related to finanacial margins, which I know nothing about. But do click the Google link because it actually takes you to "let me Google that for you", a hilarious site that shows people who ask silly questions how to Google it for themselves. Sorry, focus. Back on track.

This past year, I became a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). One of the knowledge areas in Project Management is scheduling. A Schedule Margin is time that is built into your schedule with no planned activity. This goes right along with those paper margins, right? It is a buffer zone to handle the overflow, the unexpected.

So when was the last time you added margin to your life? I'll admit, I hadn't thought about this until it was covered in a book I've been reading. The chapter was "Love is not irritable" and it noted that we all must exercise emotional self-control and not overreact. Something I didn't realize is that delegation is biblical! In Exodus 18:13-24, Moses was up for days settling disputes for the people until his father-in-law came to him and told him to delegate. I've struggled to do this at work, but have recently become more successful. Maybe it is not that I'm better at delegating tasks, but I'm definitely better at not taking them on to begin with.

So, where can you add margin to your life? Do you take a day off each week to worship and rest? Do you have that buffer in your daily schedule to absorb the emergencies and keep your stress level manageable? Here are the places where I'm adding margin to my day, every day:
1. spending time with the kids. Maybe it is eating dinner together, or watching a TV show, but I make sure they have my full attention. They see that I'm making the effort to do something with them. I've found it means the most when it is something they like to do, like playing the Wii. I'm getting better at Mario Kart.
2. chatting with friends. Okay, so my friends live on my computer, but I check in with my scrapping friends and my Facebook friends daily, as well as keeping my status up to date on Twitter. I'm looking to find more friends IRL (in real life) too.
3. Bible study. Yes, I've been reading the Bible every single day since I committed to do so. Two nights I didn't ... once on vacation with Aly when we were up till midnight scrapping (and I had nightmares all night) and on New Year's Eve, again up past midnight (no nightmares ... I didn't forget to pray).
Other goals:
1. Scrapbook at least once each week for an hour. Aly usually joins me, and I chat with my online friends at the same time.
2. Exercise three times per week. This one has been harder. I know if I got into a routine, it would be easier, and this is where I need to focus on adding margin. I have to set aside that time where nothing can interrupt, nothing can take away, my workout time.
3. Have at least one pampering appointment (hair, pedicure, massage) per month. I haven't done this yet, but plan to start soon.

So think about your schedule, not just your work schedule, but your life. Where can you add margin? And what will you fill your margins with?