Tag: slack

Adding slack to your life to reduce stress

You need “slack” or a buffer in your system, your schedule, and your life. If your schedule is too tightly packed, when one event runs past it’s allotted time, it will have a domino effect – causing you extra stress and making other people wait on you. When you’re late for one event, then you’ll probably be late for the one after that, and the next one, and the next one…Plan for everything to take a little longer (giving yourself extra time, aka “slack”) and you will reduce stress/anxiety.

This concept can be applied in all areas of life – even thinking of your budget/emergency savings. Instead of stressing about money when an emergency pops up, you’ll be able to dip into your emergency fund to pay for it. Just be sure to replenish it, as another emergency will inevitably occur at some point in life.

Building a buffer for less stress

Build a buffer into your day.

If you schedule everything so strictly, filling every hour of your day, you’re going to feel much more stress. Because if you go over time in one thing, it’s like a domino effect. One thing affects another, which affects another. Next thing you know, the schedule for your entire day is “off” and you feel like you might as well throw your schedule out the window!

You need slack in the line. If everything is so tightly scheduled and rigid, you are setting yourself up for a much more stressful (and probably less successful) day. If you think something is going to take an hour and a half, give yourself two hours to do it. Not everything will be perfect. There will be distractions or things you didn’t anticipate. That is why having that time buffer in place is so crucial.

Don’t stress yourself out. Plan a buffer.