Pick slack over stack every time.

Ever looked at your calendar and realized you’ve bricked it? One meeting, then another, then another — no gaps, no breath. Just go, go, go.

You're not alone. Modern life, with its trappings of scarcity and hustle, breeds a temptation to fill every moment of our days with activity. Whether for work or for pleasure, we're on the treadmill.

We tell ourselves we were productive — and pat ourselves on the back.

But this is a misconception. Stacking our schedules like this is a quick path to burnout, to being less present, to having more stress. It's not actually all that effective.

We need slack in our lives. Think of a rope. If it's tight constantly, if it's always under tension, it will eventually fray and break. It's better to have a rope with some give, to allow ourselves to pull back or tighten when the moment calls for it.

This week is one of those weeks where I'm tempted to stack. Preparing for a recording, managing a full-time software job, and taking care of myself — it's got my schedule full. I have a festival performance in a couple of weeks, and my collaborator asked to rehearse. I agreed, but my gut wasn't feeling it. I lost sleep over it. I knew that this extra rehearsal — with the drive over, the time, and the unclear benefit — would be an act of stacking.

Something felt off — not just with this rehearsal, but with how I was treating time in general.

The truth is, there is unscheduled time in my calendar. So why not fill it? Because not everything is on the calendar — errands, gym time, unanticipated work, spontaneous hangs — those gaps fill themselves. Planning every moment not only feels unnatural, it doesn't allow for the unexpected and the flow of life to come in.

That's where slack comes to the rescue. I think of slack like a bridge. Early bridges were built from stiff concrete — stable, yes, but inflexible. When earthquakes struck, they cracked. Engineers realized flexibility was key. The same goes for us: too rigid a schedule, and we shatter under pressure.

Every strong structure needs slack, and flexibility is strength.

Packing our schedules is like building a concrete bridge — rigid and impressive, but prone to cracking under stress. We are fragile when we have no margin for error. And life’s unpredictability will test your margins. One of the best ways we can prepare is to give ourselves some buffer room — some slack between all those commitments.

The next time you find yourself packing your schedule, ask yourself: where can I cut myself some slack? What can I trim from my schedule to just have a little more breathing room?

You may find yourself not only more relaxed but more effective.