One of the greatest books I have ever read is Margin by Richard Swenson. I knew my life was over scheduled and needed dramatic help but I could not understand the underlying causes. I now know that if you lack margin in any important area of your life you will eventually crash, its just a matter of time. Mark Merrill has a very helpful post:
“Normally, when leaders talk about margin, they are referring to the gap between a loaded and overloaded schedule, between being busy and overly busy. To create that margin, it’s often suggested that we have “white space” on our calendar, times when we don’t schedule things so that we can accommodate contingencies and unanticipated situations.”