You blink and the week flies by and you feel completely exhausted.  It happens from time to time; however, when it becomes habitual that’s a problem.

There are seasons in ministry that are naturally busy.  There are times when paperwork and admin tasks take over, but it cannot be the norm.  If you feel trapped by your schedule and a little out of control:

BREATHE

Taking a deep breath might seem like a dumb suggestion, but sometimes all we need to slow ourselves down and gain perspective is a nice deep breathe.

RUN TO GOD

When life is spinning out of control you need something solid to hold onto.  There is nothing more solid than God.  Take a few moments after that breath to ask God give you focus and peace.

SET A DATE SOON

The reason you feel overwhelmed is because you’ve lost margin.  You need to set a date where you can sit down and look at your calendar and your priorities.

PHONE A GOOD FRIEND

Reach out to a friend to meet you on this set date and ask them to help you reprioritize your tasks and time.  Make sure they are someone who can give you a little tough love.

START WITH SLEEP AND REST

If you create a calendar with tasks you’ll easily lose the most important component, margin.  Figure out how much sleep you need and when your day off is and make them sacred.  Use the rest of the time to fill with tasks.

GIVE YOURSELF SOMETHING EXTRA

When you create a task add on 15 – 30 minutes.  Take into account driving and preparation.  There are intangibles in our everyday life that can throw us off.  Planning in a little extra margin give us the ability to overcome each obstacle.

PLAN THE NEXT CALENDAR POWWOW 

Looking at your schedule needs to be a regular habit that you can’t take for granted.  Put down in a month (Or a week if you are really frazzled) a time when you can just review what you are doing.

Let’s face it ministry is a grind and it’s so easy to get stuck in mundane and life sucking tasks.  Putting together a schedule might seem basic and that’s because it is.

But, the margin you will gain is going to give you the time to focus on what needs to be done in your ministry.  It’s going to give you a pace that is manageable so that you can do this for a while.

How do you protect the margin in your schedule?