Margin: the work-life balance strategy that works

Work-life balance, is critical to your quality of life!

In fact, it's so important, it shouldn't be left in the hands of your employer. In this video, I'll share with you a simple yet profound strategy that can be tailor made to fit any work environment and help you experience MORE life, even when you're at work!

Summary

In this conversation, Treveal C.W. Lynch discusses the concept of 'margin' as a crucial skill for personal and professional well-being.

He illustrates how margin, akin to the space in a book, is essential for maintaining energy and mental clarity in our fast-paced lives.

Treveal emphasizes the importance of creating intentional pauses between activities to prevent burnout and enhance engagement in both work and personal relationships.

He shares practical tips for incorporating margin into daily routines, advocating for a balanced approach to life that prioritizes self-care and emotional health.

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Takeaways

• Margin is the space between our activities that allows for recovery.
• Many people are unaware of the importance of margin.
• Practicing margin can prevent mental burnout and fatigue.
• Creating space between tasks enhances our ability to engage.
• Margin helps us to recharge our physical, mental, and emotional energy.
• Without margin, we risk running off the edge of our capabilities.
• Intentional pauses can improve our effectiveness in leadership.
• Morning, midday, and midnight margins can be beneficial.
• Blocking time for personal space is essential for well-being.
• Margin is a skill that anyone can develop and practice.

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Transcript

Treveal C.W. Lynch (00:03.362)
Hey guys, today I wanted to talk with you about what I would consider one of the most important skill sets that anyone could ever become aware of and develop Institute into their lives. It's something called margin. And just to illustrate really quickly what margin is, think this is perhaps one of the best ways to illustrate it is to simply use

a book. This is one of my favorite books, Emotional Intelligence. Some of you guys are very aware of this book and all of the nuggets that it contains. But the point that I wanted to make is margin. Margin is just like in a book. You see that space between the edge, keep that in mind, and the content.

And then there's another margin here, a space between the edge, the end, and the content. See, in our lives, margin is that space between the end of the rope, between the life that we're living and us coming to the edge, us.

coming to the ends of our energy stores, of our wits, of our patience, whatever you name it and frame it. But the idea is that margin is something that not many people are aware of and even fewer are actually practicing, but it is so needed in our culture today because margin is something that we have pretty much done away with.

We're from meeting to meeting without any margin. We're from conversation to conversation without any margin. We're from one task to the next task without any margin, without any separation, without any space, without any silence, without any solitude to regain our energy, to replenish our energy, whether that's physical energy, mental energy, spiritual energy.

Treveal C.W. Lynch (02:32.276)
emotional energy, whatever that energy is for you, you may be experiencing that mental fog, that mental burnout, that mental fatigue. Some people call it I'm stressed. Some people say I'm just at the end of my rope. Some people say I'm about to pull my hair out. Whatever you may be saying, margin may be your solution.

Margin is simply instituting moments between activities, moments between conversations, moments between highly charged mental, emotional activities that drain you throughout your day. See, normally on a given calendar,

We'll one meeting, let's just say for example, eight to nine. And then we'll tell our coworkers, yeah, I'm free from nine until. But are you really? Are you really free from nine right up against the end of one meeting? You're already ready to go right into another one? See, margin.

is something that we don't practice nearly enough of. And we find ourselves at the end of our day, drained, tired, wore out, not having enough energy left in the tank to allocate ourselves to things that we enjoy, things that matter to us, or even more importantly, those that matter to us.

Think about the father that wears himself out all day long without having any margin and he comes home to his children and the children they want to play, they want time with dad, but dad is completely worn out. What about the mother that goes throughout her day from one meeting to the next and dealing with one issue after another and even before lunch, you're already ready to clock out because

Treveal C.W. Lynch (04:58.294)
You've been overloaded with all of someone else's issues and problems and complaints, and you haven't given yourself any margin. You haven't created any space between one issue and the next. See, just like this book, and I don't know if you guys can see it, but just like in this book, this person, the writer,

or I should say the publisher of this book, they understood, if I don't create margin, the sentences will just run on. And at some point, the reader, who matters most, the reader will not be able to comprehend and understand what's being written because the sentences just run right off the edge. And in many ways,

We live the same. We're running right off the edge and neither are other people able to understand us and where we're coming from when we lash out or we're drawing back and we're secluded and we don't wanna be bothered. Our loved ones, our family members, our coworkers, those within our community, they're wondering what's wrong with that person? Why are they?

Lashing out this way or why are they behaving this way? It's not because you are a bad person It's because you don't have margin and to add to the problem Not only are others not able to understand you but you yourself you're not able to understand you Because you've run over the edge. I Hope and pray that you hear my heart today. This is something that I teach my clients. This is something that is Something that I I practice

There's multiple ways to practice it. Morning margin, I call it my morning margin, my midday margin, my midnight margin. There's ways to include this, little subtle ways that just help to recharge the battery, refuel the tank, just to keep you feeling and being at your most optimal and most efficient and effective.

Treveal C.W. Lynch (07:21.812)
levels of energy and engagement in and through your day. So I just wanted to take a moment today and just share the concept of margin. I discovered it by reading the book called margin. I don't have the book in front of me or the information in front of me, but obviously if you Google it, right, as we say, go on Amazon, you can definitely find the book called margin. It's written by a physician. So it takes on a clinical or a

a medical kind of perspective, but there's enough stories, enough nuggets, enough examples woven within this precious book to become relevant and really speak to who you are and where you are and what you may be experiencing. again, today, I just wanted to take a few moments and share with you the importance of margin. Margin is something that any of us can practice.

any of us can institute in our everyday lives. It's simply pulling away, taking the initiative to pencil in a space between one meeting and the next, one activity and the next, one conversation and the next, one thing and the next. Because I don't really have to tell you, you're already experiencing it. When you run from one meeting to the next, you don't have time to quite calibrate.

You don't have time to quite switch gears. You don't have a lot of time and you don't have the ability necessarily to shut off that previous conversation to now fully engage and fully be aware of the conversation that you're now having, the meeting and the purposes for that meeting. You're not showing up in the way that you want to show up. You're not serving others the way that you want to.

You want to serve others and it's damaging your ability to be engaged, to be efficient and to be effective in your areas of life and in leadership. And I am here to support your success in these areas. This is something that I specialize in and I just have a passion and I believe that I have been purposed to come alongside and to serve you in this way and to serve you in this space.

Treveal C.W. Lynch (09:48.96)
So please remember margin, just like in a book, and I hope you guys can see this, just like in a book, it's simply penciling in moments where you withdraw, where you create space. Just like in this margin, there's just nothing there and that's the whole purpose. Just nothing there. One of the things that I've done and as I close, just a practical giveaway for you.

How do I practice this, you may be saying. And this is applicable to any area in your life. One that's really relevant for a lot of us is meetings. You have a calendar, right? You got your outlook calendar and you wanna go from one meeting to the next meeting, right? Okay, well, let's say I pencil in my first meeting from eight to nine. And I get it, it may not always be possible, but let's say you pencil in from eight to nine.

And then you block off a 30 minute slot. You call it your personal time. You call it the margin. You call it empty space. Whatever you title that meeting, just block off 30 minutes from this meeting to the next. And when someone asks you, what's your availability? Well, in this particular context, if I'm meeting from eight to nine, then my next available slot.

is 930 until and then you do it again. You pluck in, you plug in moments where you just aren't required to give anything, to say anything, to do anything or to be anything. Just moments where there's space, silence, solitude.

even stillness so that you can recover, so that you can replenish, so that you can refresh, so that you can renew your energy stores, recalibrate and be prepared for the next conversation, next task, next situation. I hope and pray that this has made sense.

Treveal C.W. Lynch (12:13.878)
I love you guys, I'm praying for you guys, and I believe in each and every one of you guys. Until next time, I am Trevail C. W. Lynch. Mister what what founder of I Am The Possible, and I am here to serve and support your success by helping you to uncover and understand your positions of promise.

And margin is certainly one of those positions that will yield great promise in and through your life and your leadership. Until next time, remember, genius is your design. Greatness is your destiny. God loves you. I love you. Be encouraged.

because you are the possible.