What 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.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.<\/p>\n

When 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.<\/p>\n

After 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>\n

Structure enables flexibility.<\/h4>\n

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!<\/p>\n

Creating more margin has been game-changing for my business.
\nWhat would be possible for yours?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you are alone for days or weeks at a time, you eventually become drawn to people. Talking to randos is the norm. I\u2019ll never forget the conversation with the aquarium fisherman, forest ranger, and women at the Thai market. It\u2019s refreshing to compare notes on life with people from vastly different backgrounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[19,20,22],"class_list":["post-4245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts","tag-design","tag-enjoy","tag-tech"],"yoast_head":"\n