If you\u2019re not sure how much time you are actually spending on various tasks, use a tool like Rescue Time (their free version is excellent!) which runs in the background and tracks where your time is being spent. It can even send you weekly reports so you know exactly how much time you wasted on Facebook, or spent in your email inbox! You can assign different websites or programs\/applications on a scale of very distracting to very productive, so you can see at a glance things like: which days of the week you\u2019re most productive, which times of the day you\u2019re most productive, and the sites on which you\u2019re spending the most distracting time. I stumbled upon the concept of margin while reading a post by Michael Hyatt<\/a>, which led me to design my ideal week.<\/p>\n Richard Swenson, M.D. (who wrote the book: Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives) describes margin like this: Write a book. Create a program. Update your contracts and proposals (which has been on your to-do list for how long..?) Spend more time with your family. Go above and beyond for a client. Learn something new. Actually follow through on the things that have been nagging at you for a long time. If you\u2019re not sure how much time you are actually spending on various tasks, use a tool like Rescue Time (their free version is excellent!) which runs in the background and tracks where your time is being spent. It can even send you weekly reports so you know exactly how much time you wasted on Facebook, or spent in your email inbox! You can assign different websites or programs\/applications on a scale of very distracting to very productive, so you can see at a glance things like: which days of the week you\u2019re most productive, which times of the day you\u2019re most productive, and the sites on which you\u2019re spending the most distracting time. Turns out I\u2019m consistently \u201cin the zone\u201d around 3pm in the afternoon; so instead of trying to tackle highly creative work first thing in the morning (when my brain is barely functioning), I handle it in the afternoon, when I know I\u2019m at my peak! Last year I wrote about why booking too far in advance can be dangerous for your business, and this concept of margin so eloquently captures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[21,22,26],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/teamsls.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/image-placeholder-2-min.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamsls.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4636"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamsls.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamsls.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsls.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsls.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teamsls.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsls.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamsls.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsls.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsls.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The details make the design<\/h4>\n
\nLast year I wrote about why booking too far in advance can be dangerous for your business, and this concept of margin so eloquently captures what I had recognized had been my problem: I was so booked up with clients that I wasn\u2019t leaving any margin for error, growth, planning, or reflection. I wasn\u2019t really growing my business in a sustainable way; I was just booking one client after the next. At the time this seemed like a good thing: doesn\u2019t growing my business mean getting more clients?
\nWhat if instead of booking up to 100% capacity (which more often than not ends up being closer to 120%), we only booked up to an 80% capacity?
\nWhat if we left more room for growth (personal or professional) and stopped being one with \u201cbusy-ness\u201d?
\nI spent nearly a year turning down every new project (and even getting rid of old ones) so that I could reduce my workload, build in more margin, and create what is now Digital Strategy School. It takes time to build margin into your schedule.<\/p>\n
\nWhen you design your ideal week, you start to see that the time you think you have is often not in alignment with how much time you actually have.
\nAfter designing my ideal week, I had a much clearer idea of how to create a framework for my week that would empower me to feel more focused by theming days of the week, and even parts of the day. SO simple, I know. Some of you have been doing this for ages and you\u2019re already a pro, and some of you who saw my schedule said \u201cwoah, that\u2019s so rigid, I need more flexibility!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nArt is all in the details<\/h4>\n
\nCreating more margin has been game-changing for my business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"