When I read one of his books several years ago Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, this concept started to take hold in my life as I noticed my lack of margins. At that time, I was the Director of the Excellence in Teaching Program at the University of Nevada, Reno. See if my situation was similar to one you have in your own life.

If I had a 10:00 meeting across campus, and I knew that it took me ten minutes to walk from my office to the Provost's office, I would leave at 9:50, working right up until the moment I needed to leave. I was, of course, thinking how efficient I was. WRONG! A 10-minute walk across campus would only work if:

a) I didn't see anyone I knew along the way (and that wasn't going to happen after 15 years on campus),

b) I didn't notice something interesting to look at (students doing something, a new set of plantings, a poster that begged to be read), and

c) I didn't need to take a quick restroom break on the way (also highly unlikely since I'd been working all morning and drinking coffee!)

So, in order to be "on time," I'd be charging across campus, barely greeting anyone I knew and purposely ignoring everything interesting that might distract me (and of course, not stopping in the bathroom). Harumph! This was not a smart or efficient way for me to behave.

So, I made a decision: I decided to make that year (and it's a constant, continuing quest) the year of time "margins." If I had a breakfast meeting that started at 8:00 and I knew it took 15 minutes to drive there, I would leave at 7:30. Gosh! What if I got there early?! Here's what happened: I was calmer and more ready to meet, pay attention to my colleagues, and think.

So, what I want you to do right now is to read through the following list, and ask yourself whether you have any margins in one, all, or any of these areas. Use Swenson's definition of margins being "the space that once existed between ourselves and our limits. It's something held in reserve for contingencies or unanticipated situations." 

1.  Time: Do you have any time margins, that is any type of reserve of time--be that daily, hourly, weekly, or monthly--or are you just crammed every second of every day, every year?  

2.  Wealth: How about "money" margins? Do you have any cash or credit margins--or are you just hoping that nothing breaks and that the overtime continues? Not having any money margins causes extraordinary stress on individuals and families (and companies, too).

3.  Stuff: Are all of your "things" on their last legs? Are you in a situation where your appliances, your flashlights, your office equipment, etc. are all working--but just barely. This means your margins are gone.

4.  Home, kids/family: Do you have any emotional, energy, and time margins as far as your home life and family are concerned? Or, are you strained to the breaking point? Is everyone 'on edge'?

5.  Work: Regardless of whether you are self-employed or employed by another person, consider whether you have any margins in your professional life. You know you don't have any margins if you feel you might snap at any point. There's the thought that if someone gives you one more task to do...well, you fear what might happen. Or, possibly you are a manager and every one of the people working for you is less-than-qualified. You have no margin of 'excellence' in your work setting. You are likely to be able to think of other areas where your work margins have disappeared or become quite slim.

6.  Health: When your health margins are gone, then all the other margins run the risk of disappearing altogether. If you are way behind on your sleep (and have been for weeks, months, or longer), if you have a nagging cough, ache, headache, rash, or who-knows-what-else that has been hanging on for awhile, or if you know you are ignoring your weight, cholesterol, or high blood pressure, then you are deliberately tossing away any margins you could hope to have.

7.  Energy: Your energy margins are related to many of the other margins on this list and at the same time, you can tend to your energy margins in some different ways. Check and see if you feel you have an abundance of positive energy. Are you excited about your life, your projects, your relationships, getting up every day to see what might be in store for you? Or, do you feel dread and despair as you think about these aspects of your life? Ouch. Margins are non-existent if the latter is true .

8.  Ideas: What's your idea margin? Are you replete with ideas or experiencing a dearth in that direction? Notice whether this is a change for you. If you used to have TONS of ideas but now have very few, think about what might have caused the change.

I hope thinking about your margins--be they wide or narrow--is useful to

Margins are "the difference between calm and crazed."  To receive weekly tips about margins, just go to Pumpernickel Publishing where you can sign up to receive one tip per week in one or more of the following series: 

**Tips: Creating Margins in Your Personal Life

**Tips: Creating Margins in Your Professional Life

**Tips: Creating Time, Energy, & Life Margins:  Tips for Teachers

Tip:  If you are interested in more than one, it's better to sign up for one at a time...or at least only sign up for one today and then a different one tomorrow.  That way, you really will only get one tip on a given day and you'll have a chance to implement that before you get the next one. 

(c) 2008 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., "The Ph. D. of  Productivity"(tm)

Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do via seminars, workshops, writing, coaching, & consulting.  Visit her site Emphasis on Excellence.