
Gasping for air? Feeling like you are just rolling from one thing to the next? Never take time off? Skipping lunch breaks? . . . or maybe the tell-tale signs are at another level . . . are you struggling to sleep at night and yet you feel significantly tired? Maybe your key relationships are getting frayed? Are you struggling to concentrate, but know you need to focus? And then when you do focus, you are so easily distracted. Is your desk feeling cluttered . . . like your mind.

©Inc Magazine
Maybe it’s time to talk margins . . . or better still, let’s have a month’s focus on margins to do a hard reset and freshen up. You’re at your best if you take time to think, time for people, to exercise and slow down. Find that rich life we have talked about in blog 12. It’s time to stop the hurry and walk slowly, give you back some control and shift from being a ‘human doing’ back to being . . . a human being.

To do that, how about we look forward to August as a month to focus on putting margins in your life? I’ve included a series of practical challenges designed to help you implement margins in your life. The purpose of these challenges is that as you try them, they may become part of your own rhythm. These challenges were adapted from a program titled ‘A Big Year in Following the Way of Jesus’, however as you will see from the list below, they suit anyone looking to put margins in their life. Acting on these challenges will help you embed the habit of margins in your rhythms. There are a dozen good challenges in this list for you to choose from.
A last word before you engage with the list. Don’t try and do them all. Just pick a couple you’d like to try to implement in August – your Month of Margins. And leave us feedback on how your August journey goes. Here you go – you have a couple of weeks to prepare for August.
- Take one hour a week to be alone, and do something that you really love doing outdoors (e.g. bike riding, walking, meditating, surfing, reading a book just for fun). Think about your hopes for the coming year.
- Set aside an hour at the beginning of the month to conduct a ‘life audit’ – a list or map of all the things that you spend your time, energy and money on. Add a rating to each item which indicates how important it is to you. Put it in a place where you will see it every day. At the end of the month, go back and add a rating to each item that indicates how important it is for you.
- Take time to unplug from all technology. In that time, write a card to someone to say thank you or encourage them. Post it or give it to them in person.
- When meeting with friends this month, commit to making space with no electronic media or socialising but putting all your phones into the centre of the table. If anyone touches their phone during conversation, they have to pay for the whole bill!
- Choose five nights this month where you can deliberately plan the time that you will go to bed. Stop ‘doing’ one hour before your planned bedtime (this means no internet, no TV, no phone calls, housework etc). Take that hour to pray, reflect, paint or meditate.
- Go to one of your friend’s social media profiles and look at one or two of their recent entries. Before moving on, spend time reflecting on what they have posted and what might be happening in their lives. Take a moment to provide a response that’s encouraging.
- It is often when we make time to be in nature that we slow down our thinking. Connect with nature this month. Try some cloud watching, sitting outdoors and listening, walking rather than taking a bike/car/train, have dinner in the park once a week.
- Write a 1-2 sentence ‘Thankfulness Prayer’. Put it in your diary, on a post-it note, in your phone or post it on FB. Reflect on it for five minutes every day.
- Buy a small plant and spend time this month nurturing it.
- In one week this month, set aside a total of eight hours and undertake the following activities: Do something energising (2hr), help others (2hr), spend time with family (2hr), share a meal with someone (2hr).
- Each day for a week, write or draw something you are thankful for. Put your writing/drawing in your jar. At the end of the week, take them out and look at them. Spend some time being thankful for these things.
- For one day this month, be on the lookout for someone new to talk to. Let them choose the conversation topic.
Remember, just pick a couple to implement in your life this August. I’m sure it will make a difference and create the space you need to live the life you want.

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