Anyone else love a good planner? The crispness of the new paper, the highlighters ready to do their work and the white space just calling my name to fill it all in. Yep, I kind of like planners!

I’ve learned something about life as I’ve filled out planners over the years. The space fills up WAY to quickly in our planner and in our life!

If we aren’t careful we start to lose any form of white space and the chaos of our schedule overwhelms us. It’s not just in the busyness of what we’re doing that’s filled up our calendar but even seeing a calendar without any whitespace left can leave us overwhelmed!

So what’s a person to do?

Maybe I’m the only person who’s ever struggled with way to many lists and way to many obvious things on that list. If somehow magically writing dishes on there just to be able to cross it off would make everything better. Just me?

The thing is when we fill up our to do lists and calendars with SO many things our brain automatically thinks chaos and we feel overwhelmed before we start. We’ve talked about this a bit on the blog before but we need to pick our highest priorities and make sure they get put on the calendar and then fill in around them.

• So, for example, I like to do block scheduling. It gives me a little leeway as we so seldom have a hard and fast schedule in our ranching lifestyle. I will block out time every morning for devotions and quiet time. It’s my most important part of the day and I don’t want anything else to interfere with it. Does that mean it’s always the same every day or is perfectly orchestrated? Heck no, this is me we’re talking about! I laugh in the face of perfection!!

• Then, I schedule in time for exercise as I know how vital it is for my body. I also make sure to block off time to write or read. Even if it’s just 30 minutes or simply journaling for myself. I just know it’s good for my soul and learned in the last few years how important it is these don’t get pushed to the “if I have time left in the day” category!

• Next I write in only 3 things that are my top priority for that day. It might look different every day but this is the framework I like to work in. Also, and this has been HUGE for me, things may have to shift so for the love of all things good I write those 3 in pencil!! Grace is needed in our lives and in our calendars.

Often times I get more done than the 3 top priority list things done for the day and can move on to some of the things on the next day. Other days I’m really doing good to get one done. Rarely does life go as we plan and we can either choose to roll with the punches or curl up in the fetal position and cry.

When we give ourselves some breathing room it makes the unexpected bumps in the road a little easier to manage.

One other thing I’ve learned the hard way, is there really any other way, is when I have to many things on my list I try to multitask and do a little of each all day. I’d love to tell you I’m amazing at multitasking. I mean I can do it and most people would probably think, “Wow, she’s really doing a great job of keeping all those plates spinning!”

The thing is though, I never get any of them finished so I just keep spinning plates!! That’s no way to live life.

Who’s ready to add some white space to their life? Who’s ready to put a few of those spinning plates down with me this year?

I’m going to let you in on a secret you may or may not know. God loves you SO much right where you are, plate spinning, multitasking, full calendar and all. But He also loves you too much to leave you there if you will allow Him to guide you in this.

What are some ways you’ve learned to allow for more whitespace in your life as well as your calendar? I’d love to hear about them!