Constants and Variables

Years ago, I read a time management article that interviewed a parish priest. He was on call 24/7 for parishioners’ emergencies while also fulfilling routine parish and community responsibilities. He told the author that he thought of his days in terms of “constants and variables.”

The constants were his routine tasks and self-care practices: writing sermons, getting exercise, spending time in prayer and study, taking care of his dog. He scheduled most of his constants at the beginning and end of the day. He then had the middle of the day free to address parishioners’ concerns, meetings, and whatever else came up: the variables. Seeing his responsibilities and tasks in terms of constants and variables helped him organize his time and stay more present when emergencies came up.

Constants are all about maintenance. Identify your constants. Write down your recurring activities like exercise or doing laundry. Write down your enduring commitments to family, friends, communities. Write down what is essential for you for self-care. If you identify your constants, you know what to build routines or habits around. Constants also benefit from having a defined scope.

I used to work with a project manager at a software company. She helped us define what our deliverables were with our clients, and she alerted us to when things were expanding beyond the scope of the project: scope creep! For constants, it’s critical to define your scope.

What are the resources you plan to devote to each role or activity? How much time, money, attention will you give this? When is something done for the day?

For example, if we think of exercise, when do you know you’ve been active enough? After 10,000 steps? After 40 minutes? After three push-ups? We can complete individual tasks or projects, but we never truly finish constants. They are the parts of our lives that are maintained or practiced, and it is good to know when we have done enough for the day or for the week. Our constants really benefit from operating under a defined scope or range.

Like constants, variables are always present, but we cannot know their impact ahead of time. Variables are the unknowns of life, the things that come out of left field — the unexpected medical diagnosis, or the childhood friend messaging you that they are in the area, and would you like to get together for lunch?

Although we do not know which particular variables will occur, we can count on variables being a constant, if you will. They fall under the category of the predictably unpredictable, life happening. Variables can be stressful things that you must make time to deal with, like your washing machine breaking down. Or they can be beautiful things that you want to make time to enjoy, like watching a spectacular sunset. We know that variables will happen. We just don’t know what their impact will be.

However, our constants can tame the frustrating variables to some degree, and allow us to make the most of the desirable opportunities that come up. If you’ve got a pretty good routine to deal with your constants, it’s easier to take time off to go on a bike ride on a beautiful autumn day.

Constants also help reduce those disheartening variables where we score own goals: when we ignore something until it demands much more of our time, attention, and money than it needed to. I used to let my car run low on gas. This habit just created more stress for me (and one or two embarrassing phone calls for rescue when the fumes I was running on petered out). When I realized I was creating needless stress for myself and others, I established a new constant. I started filling the gas tank whenever it was half empty.

Having a personal framework is something like being your own project manager, defining your scope. A personal framework addresses our enduring roles and relationships, values and commitments, and everyday things that routinely happen. It sets up the scope of our constants. We decide what matters, we identify what our constants are, and we figure out what resources we will allocate, and when something is done for the season, the week, or the day.

Then we can be more relaxed in accommodating the variables.

Photo illustration of constants and variables. The constant: Every year I wrap Christmas presents. The variables: one variable is squashing the bows in the box, and the other variable is advancing on the wrapping paper.

Photo: Anna Havron, November 2020