Is Margin a Myth? Creating More Margin in Your Everyday Life

You’re making a list, you’re checking it twice 

You’re gonna find out… what’s priority and what’s not.

Not only can you experience absolute euphoria when checking something off your list, but it’s a tangible way to take everything floating in your brain and see it. It’s key to prioritize your to-do list in order to maximize margin. This might sound overwhelming, but this whole step is about taking the jumble of to-dos in your brain and organizing them visually in order to make an effective plan. I typically do this the night before or morning of a busy day. 

Start by writing everything down as it comes to you—work tasks, personal chores, urgent errands, friends to remember to text—then going through and organizing top to bottom what needs to get done first. After this is complete, you can tweak the order by what will take the most time. While some people prefer to work on a project until it’s complete, I need to jump around and use the 20/5/20 method where I work on one project for 20 minutes, take a break for 5 minutes, work on another project for 20 minutes, and then repeat. This will depend on your personal work style, but planning your day around timely deadlines and time consuming tasks is the best way to avoid procrastination and last minute stress. 

After seeing what must get done, you can create margin during the rest of your day by looking at what you want to do. Want to fit in a workout but the workday is busy? Set an alarm and wake up early to get it in or choose one task that isn’t time sensitive to complete and replace those 25 minutes with a 25 minute walk or HIIT class. Your work will get done plus your body and brain will thank you. Want to be more social? Everyone has to eat! Add in quality time over an early morning coffee or after-work dinner. If you’re able to step away from the computer over lunch, phone a friend and walk around the house while whipping up some food to add in easy conversation and movement. 

On Wednesdays we wear whatever color my calendar says. 

Google calendar, Apple calendar, honestly any calendar app downloadable to your phone—they are a gift for the novice to elite organizer alike. One feature I find extremely helpful is the ability to color coordinate. Personally (and not just because I think the color choices are enchanting), I use one color for work, for personal tasks, for social things, for workouts, for travel, etc. A rainbow on my screen and blissful organization in my sight. Organizing in color is another way to visually see what’s happening that day in order to give insight on where you can create space for margin. A few months ago I was feeling exhausted and burnout (who isn’t?), but then I realized my calendar was entirely orange. Orange=work. I started adding just 5-15 minute windows of pink (reading for pleasure) and green (phoning a friend) into my day. I was amazed that despite having a full agenda each day, I did have margin here and there to give to activities and moments of relaxation that fueled me to be more productive on time-sensitive tasks. 

The B word 

Boundaries. It’s a trendy word for a reason, and I’ll put it like this—when you’re working, work; when you’re not, don’t. We can’t expect to create more margin in our lives if we disrespect any margin we create. The amount of times I have been out to dinner with friends and habitually checked my work email is embarrassing but likely too relatable. I believe my life would instantly feel full of boundaries if I took the steps to implement them. I once had a therapist tell me I was great at creating boundaries but terrible at staying within them. She wasn’t wrong. Boundaries don’t always have to apply to relationships with people; our relationships with different spheres of our lives (i.e. mental health, physical health, social wellbeing, sleep) also benefit from boundaries. Yes, creating margin is about scheduling, but it also involves focusing and being present on what is happening in the margin we’re able to create. During work hours, I strive to be focused on the work ahead of me. When in a workout class or 5-minute in-between-meetings-yoga-flow, I leave everything from the day at the door and step into a new headspace when my feet touch my mat. When out to dinner with friends, can I keep my phone in my bag and my focus attentive to the conversation? These boundaries are just as important as relational boundaries since they impact how we come to each space we’re in. 

Breaks and Rewards 

If I didn’t stick to a schedule, I would absolutely be scrolling aimlessly through Instagram for as long as I want, taking long luxurious showers at 1pm after a morning of workout classes, and flipping through cookbooks for recipes I’ll likely never make. None of these are bad! In fact, they’re all great things that I love to do. Creating margin in your life is about this other trendy word called “balance.” Balance doesn’t mean having an equal portion of everything, but a little bit of “this” here and “that” there in order to create what we have come to glorify as the “balanced person.” Creating margin by implementing routine, schedule, and structure allows for room to play in the open moments. If a Tuesday ends up being less busy because you followed your schedule and finished assignments early, then feel the freedom to go to the 5:30pm Soul Cycle class after logging off from work. If you are running errands all day, but pass your favorite coffee shop and have time to breathe, grab the cappuccino and sit for 5 minutes phone-free before continuing the day’s to-dos. Or purposefully schedule appointments with 15 minutes in between so you can go for a walk, grab a snack, or talk with your partner before hopping back in. We typically call this “treating yourself,” but by intentionally structuring our days to be efficient, productive, and self-satisfying, this is really a life filled with margin.