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		Busy, Busy, Busy Part 2 Reprinted from December 2005 Issue -by PAUL CASEY Happy Hectic Holidays! If you’ve thought that at least once this month, keep reading. Last month, I put out several reasons for the wrong motives for being busy. They were: Keeping up with the Joneses (comparing); Not having to deal with issues (compensating); Pride (vanity); Performance orientation (getting significance by doing); Saying Yes to everything (pleasing). No one would buy a book that had text all the way to each edge of every page; our eyes can’t handle it. Neither can our lives handle it when our time commitments fill up every second. Margin, a term coined by Dr. Richard Swenson, is the space between our load (commitments/schedule) and our limits (energy/time). We have to create some space in our lives so that we are not “on the edge” and living a life full of regrets. Having the time-buffer of margin: •Allows for expecting the unexpected. There needs to be a cushion in order to avoid the irritations of a tight schedule. Although I’m a time management freak sometimes using my Microsoft Outlook program, if I don’t build in time blocks of margin, I’ll feel tense at the end of the day. A friend/guest coming into town? Got margin to let him/her stay with you? Got margin enough to invite your neighbor to stay for dinner after you connect in the driveway? Got margin enough to stop for stranded motorist? •Allows for coping while under stress. We all have a core need for down-time. I liken it to gears on a car: Overdrive is “in-crisis” mode; Drive is productive time; Low Gear is for relationship-building; and Park is for rest and replenishment of resources. Our lives were not meant to race; we can burn out if we don’t downshift. •Allows for prioritizing the most important. We all only have 24 hours per day, and we can never get it back. All spent time should have a purpose, not just going about the wave of life. Just like every sport has a ”ready position”, we need to be poised for actions that are in line with our core values. Todd Duncan said that in these prioritizing times, make a “not to do” list and follow it. •Allows for weekly resting. Those in religious circles often call this Sabbath rest: one day per week to disconnect from work and keeping your schedule not too packed to take a day off. •Allows for solitude-seeking. This reminds me of the Star Wars clip of Yoda on the back of Luke Skywalker telling Luke that he can only discern what is right when his spirit is calm/at peace. Even scientists (in the Breakout Principle) have researched that the way to get unstuck in a place in your life or in a project is to take time to get alone either doing a therapeutic activity or get some alone time. A great series of acronyms can be a new goal for your life in the new year: depart daily (some quiet time each day); withdraw weekly (a more extended reflective time each week); adjourn annually (going somewhere beautiful each year to get away and be introspective). Blaise Pascal said, “All of man’s troubles come from an inability to sit alone, quietly, in a room, for any length of time.” •Allows for serving other people. It’s one of the things that get bumped when you’re overscheduled. But our community, our neighborhood, our churches, our friends, the poor—all of them need us to do our part in coming alongside them to meet their needs. These efforts become more natural when there is margin. How does Margin play out practically? If you say yes to something, something else has to go (which is my wife’s philosophy of accumulating clothes in our house). Your calendar including empty blocks (instead of often like mine, where it looks like my preschooler got a hold of it with a Sharpie). Erecting boundaries to protect your priorities and not letting anything get through them—and respecting the boundaries of others. Scheduling family nights or date nights that nothing can bump (or with an unavoidable conflict, gets re-scheduled the next night). Take some time during the last weeks of 2005 to set a new course for the time God has allotted you in 2006—and maximize it! Paul D. Casey, Family Ministry Director, Bethel Church, Richland, WA. 509-628-0150.