Last month, we answered the question, “When is someone late to work?” If you would like to re-read that article, you can do so HERE. But, there is an issue behind this issue that we need to address, and that’s the importance of margin…
Without margin, your day is going to feel rushed. You are going to be racing from meeting to meeting, task to task, location to location, and you are going to constantly feel the stress of missing something important or being late. All of this can be avoided if you understand the importance of margin.
For example, the reason why people are late to work is because they don’t build margin into their morning drive. If you are told to be at work by 9:00 am, don’t aim for 9:00 am. If one thing goes wrong (one too many red lights, an unexpected traffic jam, getting stuck behind a school bus, etc.), you will be late. Instead of aiming for 9:00 am, you should aim for 8:45 am. That way, if anything goes wrong, you are still on time.
The same is true in how you schedule your day. It isn’t wise to overbook yourself. If you do, and one thing goes wrong, you are now behind for the rest of the day on everything else. This means that you might miss important meetings and important deadlines. The wise thing to do is to build margin into your schedule so that you have time to adjust when something unexpected comes up.
Margin is also important for tasks like sermon prep. If you are still preparing your sermon on Saturday night, you are in desperate need of margin earlier in the week. For example, what if you worked really hard and got a week ahead, and stayed there? That way, when (not if) something important comes up that requires your time and attention (like an unexpected death in your church family), you can handle the situation without worrying about being unprepared for your sermon on Sunday.
My point is this… be intentional with creating margin in your day. Begin your day by looking at your calendar, and be realistic about what you can accomplish. And, if you have to travel somewhere for a meeting, make sure you give yourself extra time to get from one place to another so that you are not late.
This might sound like a small, insignificant thing. But, if you begin adding margin to your day, I promise that in the end, you (and the people you lead) will be grateful. Many times, it’s small things like this that make a big difference in how effective you are in your ministry.
