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Hey there! We’ve had a week doing fun, ordinary, and still un-ordinary activities while Dad’s away. We even made a peach cobbler. This doesn’t happen everyday, so it’s a special treat!

It took a really long time and involved people wandering away into other rooms, losing interest, and having to be reeled back in. By the end, I really had no idea if I even measured properly, but we went with it and hoped for the best. It turned out alright!

One thing I work on myself and I have worked with clients on is living with margin. As in, margin of time. It’s allowed us to do silly stuff like play in the rain.

Play in the backyard with water.

Do arts in the living room.

Take silly pictures of our kitty. Here he is doing cat things.

I often try to see how much I can get accomplished before I leave to go somewhere. Does anyone else do this? How about spending time being sucked into social media or online videos, doing random stuff so there is no time to get actual real life stuff finished? It’s not wise and it has often makes me late or, at the very least, rush, and scoot in right on time. This is no fun way to live! 

Instead of walking right up to the line of how late can I leave and still arrive on time, I have had to change my thought process to realistically, how much time I will need. My watch will often tell me when to leave for an appointment, based on traffic. It’s helpful, but it’s great to be completely ready to leave before that alert. If I wait for that alert to get ready, I still run the risk of being late, since I am getting in the car when I really need to be pulling out of the driveway.

We have gotten much better at living with margin regarding time. It leaves time for random fun stuff instead of rushing around everywhere!

Here are some ways I have, and my clients have, found success in creating margin each day.

Have an actual task list for the day. Yep, get the pen and cute notepad, and write important tasks for the day. It is helpful to write it out before bedtime the night before so you don’t wake up stressed about remembering what needs to happen. 

Avoid mindlessly scrolling through social media. It happens to everyone. I have turned all my notifications off so it is not a distraction on my phone. This will free up a lot of time in a day and put your mind on more important people and places. 

Get it done. Stop procrastinating what isn’t fun or entertaining. Just get it over with and get rid of that burden. It will free up space in your day, creating more margin in the long run.

Simplify the calendar. Allow margin for each day as much as possible. Nobody likes to feel rushed or be stuck in traffic while sweating it trying to get to an appointment (done it)! Eliminate unnecessary tasks or meetings. Plan to not pack so much in a day to allow time to smell the flowers and notice the birds in the yard. When emergencies or unforeseen tasks come up, there is time to calmly handle it.

Batch tasks. It will give more time in a day when you set aside time to complete an entire task instead of jumping from one to another. Finish emails at one time. Run errands at stores all at one time. Make phone calls or appointments at once. It will save time and the work quality will be better to focus on just one task at a time and it will feel good to completely finish tasks.

Plan to arrive places at least five minutes early. At best, you will have time to chill for a few minutes. If surprises happen and you get slowed down, you still have a chance to make it on time. We try our best to allow time to get to church in time to check the littles into class with their stickers before class starts instead of printing security tags when classes start because by that time, they have missed part of their classes. With ballet, we do our best to arrive five minutes early to allow time to walk in calmly, make sure shoes are on, and line up at the door when class starts. If they arrive right on time (which happens sometimes), they have to run in, slip off their booties, and hope to run to the door as class begins. No fun to begin what should be a fun activity by slipping in, sweating and out of breath.

Leaving earlier than necessary allowed me to make it to Spring Show at the theatre with time to spare. I have done the running late, sweating through traffic, hoping to make it faster than the ETA specifies on the Maps app, and ducking my head trying to catch up with everyone else already there. Whew! This was much better!

Does anyone have any great suggestions they have found enables them to live with margin? I’d love to hear them! Talk to you soon!

Love,
Charis

Pic(k) of the week:

When you’re hungry, you’re hungry. Apple thief! I knew someone was sneaking fruit out of the pantry!