When I first opened my gym, I remember that as we grew, and demand for session times went up, I was enthusiastic about shoe-horning as many things back to back as I possibly could.

Ditto for when I started taking clients at Two-Brain. I set up my calendar with wide-open, reckless abandon and couldn’t wait for days that were packed with client after client.

I did this with the family too – I’d have my days set up to robotically go from one task to the next.

At a certain point, I started to feel that I was missing something.

In the gym, I missed being able to linger with folks before and after their session, just to catch up and exchange a few terrible dad jokes.

The trouble I quickly ran into taking clients over zoom, back to back, for seven hours in a row? BATHROOM BREAKS!

And at home, because I had become so tightly bound to a schedule, I missed the little in-between moments. Like when the kids would run out the front door as I was pulling away only for me to wave, instead of stopping and giving the courtesy rev that they so desperately wanted.

In short, I was missing margin.

So one day, I decided to change.

I purposely built in time between every session at the gym to allow me to deepen relationships.

Ditto for my calendar availability working with remote clients.

Oddly enough, when I accounted for margin at work, it naturally led to better time with the family.

I am certainly not optimized for mass efficiency and productivity, but I strive to be optimized for margin.

And I’m good with that.

So if you’re longing for those in-between moments, take a look at your calendar and see where you can pencil in more margin.