I love books! Just ask anybody who knows me.

I love the way they change the feel and look of a room when you enter into one lined with books. While rather expensive, they make a very special kind of wallpaper!

I also love visiting bookstores of all kinds—new, used, big, little, near and far away. I love accumulating books and wish I had enough time to read all the ones I buy. You know what I mean. I’m talking about the ones we’ve all bought with “good intentions.”

My husband and I have a library that could put some public libraries to shame. Although many categories are not among the books we own, such as “lesbian and gay studies,” “anime,” or “international law,” we have invested in a wide variety of titles.

It’s interesting to reflect on occasion and realize that I haven’t always felt this way. I remember not liking to read while growing up. Reading was something I only did when I had to. It was something that was necessary to do so I could do my homework or pass my driver’s license test.

Now, I love to read! What happened?

Well, I’m not exactly sure. Watching my husband read every chance he gets in all the years I’ve been with him has certainly played a role in my transformation. You can’t be around a man like him for long without being influenced by his passion for learning.

I mean, when you live with a man who reads over 100 books a year, you’re bound to get “infected” at some point!

While he has been instrumental in my transition, a real turning point occurred for me back in 1989 when the two of us decided to turn off the television. Jim read a book (imagine that!) that challenged us to do something different with our time.

While I’m not advocating that you do the same, I must say that it is the only logical explanation I can think of for myself.

On occasion people will ask me, “How do you have so much time to read?” Having only 24 hours in a day like you, the only answer that makes sense to me is, “I don’t watch TV.”

Ponder this for a moment, then ask yourself, “How much time do I spend watching TV? If I quit watching TV for a day, a week, or even a month, what would I do with the available time in my life?”

Is there a book you bought with “good intentions,” yet haven’t found the time to read it? Consider fasting from TV. Who knows, you might become a reader.

Take it from me, I never thought I’d like reading; however, since 1989, I find I do it everyday and enjoy it!

While I can’t say we’ve “saved money” canceling cable for all these years, it has allowed me some “extra money” to buy wonderful books.

My husband lives by a quote he heard once that said, “I’d rather have books and no money than have money and no books.” Though we’ve never had an issue with either one of these, I think you get the idea.

By the way, when was the last time you read a good book?…

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Are you a stressed out mom running from place to place with no time to spare? Do you have so many things on your mental To Do List that you get worn out just thinking about all the things you need to get done? We live in an extremely busy and stressed out culture. It can seem nearly impossible to conquer the busyness beast.

So what do you do? Listed below are Ron Edmonson’s 10 Ways to Create Time Margin. I read a lot about the benefits of margin in your life and there are many good benefits including better health and stronger relationship. But Ron has provided some excellent way to go about creating the margin we so desperately need. I need this list as much as anyone (as you can probably tell since this was supposed to be yesterday’s post that I didn’t get done until now).

1. Put God first.

It’s amazing in my week and day if I start the day talking to God about my day. If I ask God for margin in my time and to help me complete my “to do” list, He actually seems to listen and help me. (Try it!)

2. Prioritize your life.

It is important to have a life purpose. What do you value most? Without knowing this we find ourselves chasing after many things that have little value.

3. Make sure your priorities line up with your desires.

That sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it is not. Many times, we say our purpose is one thing, but what we actually do is something entirely different. That is often because people are going to do what people want to do. We may need to ask God to change our heart and plant in us His desires.

4. Stop unnecessary time-wasters.

If you “veg” out every night on 3+ hours of television or surfing the net, don’t be surprised that you didn’t get a blog post written or spend quality time with your children. Most of us form bad habits or have unorganized methods of doing something that waste bulks of our time. Make a list of what you spend the most time doing and see if there are places you can cut. (I suspect there will be.)

5. Work smarter.

I can’t imagine being successful and leading a team without some system of calendaring your week or keeping a planner, yet I know so many pastors and other ministers who simply handle things as they come up rather than work with a plan. The benefit of organization is that you can do what you need to do more efficiently and faster and be more productive.

6. Schedule times to organize.

This is so important, but most people don’t do it. Spending an hour or two actually planning the week will make the whole week more productive. Usually for me this is the first part of my week. If I know where I’m headed and my work space is organized for efficiency, it’s much easier to get everything done and still handle distractions, which are sure to come.

7. Do the most necessary things first.

You may have tried the A/B/C list of scheduling priorities. It doesn’t matter what system you use, but the important thing is that you have one and use it to help your rate of completion.

8. Don’t say yes to everything.

Be picky with your time allotment based again on your end priorities and goals.

9. Schedule down time.

Especially when my boys were younger, I would write on my calendar time for them. That may sound mechanical, but it allows you to be there and keeps things and others from filling up your schedule.

10. Evaluate your schedule often.

Plans should not be implemented and then ignored. Develop your plan to create margin in your life, then periodically review the plan to see how you are doing and what needs to be changed.

Do you have any tips for creating more margin in your life? We’d love to hear from you if you do.

Faith, I remember when Dad and I decided to disconnect the t.v. from the cable for a week back in 1989 as a experiment to see what would happen. Much to my amazement, we were all pretty happy with the idea of doing it permanently.

While many would think we were crazy for doing it, I’ve come to realize that I get so much done that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. No television has freed me up to read extensively, play games with my children, read aloud to them, and not have to compete with the television for my family’s time.

Certainly there are occasions when I do watch it at someone else’s house, but I have found it dramatically calmed down our home, brought peace, greater productivity, and margin to our family when we unplugged.

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