TIME FOR
HEALTH
By John de Graaf, Experience Life
How to Schedule (or Unschedule) Your Family Well
A too-busy reality can run you and your loved ones ragged - and do real damage to your
family’s happiness in the process. Here’s how to make time for the healthy priorities that
really matter.
The Time-Health Connection Time Traps How to Transform Time A New Model Make
Time, Take Time Resources
Jennifer Pelton couldn’t keep up with her frantic schedule, and it was making her — and
her family — sick.
The 36-year-old mother of three was working full-time as the primary fundraiser for a non-
profit law organization in Baltimore. She also volunteered at her children’s school, served
on the governance board of her professional association, consulted for other nonprofits
and organized the social justice discussion series at her church.
In addition, Pelton regularly brought her work home with her. She snuck the time she
needed to meet all her obligations by sacrificing sleep, quality family connections and,
eventually, her health.
“I was staying up for hours after the kids went to bed, getting four hours of sleep a night,”
Pelton recalls. “I was living in a fog of fatigue. I was exhausted all the time and was getting
sick frequently. I had recurring infections, frequent stomachaches and migraine headaches.”
Pelton’s overdrive habits put her family’s well-being at risk, too. “After work, I was cranky
and had no energy to do things with my kids, so we just watched TV,” she says. Healthy,
homemade meals, active family pursuits and thoughtful conversations all fell by the wayside.
Then, last summer, Pelton’s doctor told her she needed to slow down. “He saw that I was
on the verge of exhaustion, and he told me things could get much worse if I kept burning
the candle at both ends,” she says.
So Pelton pooled her unused sick days and vacation days, stepped aside from her volunteer
commitments, and took a four-week mini-sabbatical to rest, reflect and reconfigure how
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she spent her time. Continued on page 88
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