Creating Margin

CREATING MARGINS WITHIN OUR LIVES

We’ve previously talked about ways to have fewer, better meetings, but let’s also consider ways to create margin within our work and our lives.

For example. . .

Rather than scheduling meetings back to back so that we end one meeting at the top of the hour and then start our next meeting at the very same moment, can we give ourselves 15 minutes between meetings? Or, even better 30, so that we have time to capture our follow-ups and maybe even take care of a few of them before our next meeting?

When promising a deliverable to a client, can we suggest a due date of 8 am Monday rather than 5 pm Friday, just in case we need the weekend to give it a final review, with fresh eyes?

And, when mapping out our project schedule for the year, could we plan for a couple of days between projects so that we can recap and regroup and mentally transition from one project to another?

Perhaps we create margin by aiming to arrive five or ten minutes early to appointments.

Or by telling ourselves that we need 30 minutes to commute, even if the drive only technically takes 17.

Margins allow us to breathe a bit. To exhale. To pause and to think. To avoid operating as the Tasmanian Devil Leader that you may have read about in Expansive Impact (and that I will admit, I’ve certainly been in the past).

What do you think?

Is there anything you do that supports you in creating margins within your work or your life?