{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"What Works","title":"EP 319: Why Our Plans Need More Margin","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1442,"description":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMargin is space—the space between and around.\n\n\n\nThere is the margin of a page, of course. And there is the margin around the border of a forest. There’s also the margin in your business–the space between your revenue and your expenses.\n\n\n\nMost of us don’t have nearly as much margin as we used to. At one point in our lives, we uttered the words, “I’m bored…” and our caregivers rolled their eyes and told us to go outside. The margin between planned activities, play dates, and bursts of play gave us an opportunity to feel that boredom.\n\n\n\nWhen do we ever feel bored now?\n\n\n\nWhen are we ever faced with a lack of things to do or chores to take care of? Even in the midst of this Great Pause, margin feels tenuous. I’ve had countless conversations with people who fear returning to normal and, with it, the crush of things to do and places to go that squeezes all of the margin out of our lives and work.\n\n\n\nI’m one of those people who feels anxious at the thought of losing the margin I’m now enjoying thanks to the forced change in my habits and patterns. My 12 year-old daughter is too. She loves cooking and crafting and finding endless ways to rearrange her Harry Potter Lego sets without the distraction of constantly coming up with things to do outside of the house.\n\n\n\nThis month, we’ve been talking about how to work our plans—how to see a plan & its execution as a learning process, how to identity the working style that works for you, how to invite change into your plans.\n\n\n\nMargin is a key component of planning, but one we rarely acknowledge.\n\n\n\nIn fact, a lack of margin is one of the chief reasons we fail to follow through on our plans.\n\n\n\nWe don’t allow for margin at the start or finish. We don’t leave margin between projects or items in a check list. We certainly don’t make room for error. And the result is that everything we do starts to feel rushed, harried, and full of anxiety.\n\n\n\nIn Episode 298, my friend Kate Strathmann told me that she noticed she’s more...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/AmfGeDL96-fhMaeOcqmX7TK_eWrvTLco6OJj2QpZtZI/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80NGUx/OWY5ZDg1M2E5MmU3/ZjEwOWVmNDM3MWVh/ZjZlOS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}