Transcripts
1. Intro: Schedule with Margin: I'm Lisa Jacobs in this lesson is called a schedule
with margin. I don't care when you're
finding this class. It's always the right time to
do some strategic thinking, Self-reflection, and
annual planning. I'm the author of
the best-selling your best your workbooks and a radical advocate for
growth and change. And you are about to have the year of your life.
And I have great news. You already have all of the resources you
need to succeed. And that's without
buying another book, taking another training, or
earning another certificate. You are enough, you
have enough and you offer enough to make all
of your dreams come true. In this class, we're
going to unlock one of the biggest
secrets to success. Decide where you are going. It sounds simple enough, but trust me, it's rare. In my upcoming
series of classes, I'm going to show
you how to move the dial in your life and business because this isn't the stuff you leave to chance. You have to know what you're working toward when
you'll prepare, when you'll do the work
and make progress. And just as importantly, when you rest and recover and celebrate all that
effort you've been putting in your time and you're
ready for the next level. With this series, I want you
to become an unstoppable, relentless force
toward your own good. Are you ready? Let's begin.
2. Boundaries, Priorities, Results: Concepts shared here
are extensions of my best-selling workbook and annual planner, your best year. A schedule with margin is
one chapter in the book. And building a schedule
with margin is here to help you obliterate
inefficiencies, busy work, and bad habits for increased joy and inspiration. This is something that I'm
incredibly passionate about, so I'm excited to
get right into it. Before we begin, let's set
the tone for this class. I'd like for you to have a rough outline of your
annual strategy handy. And this could even include
your day planner or journal. You've likely done some planning
for the months to come, the months ahead,
even the year ahead. And that's what we're
looking at today. We're going to be taking that apart to be sure that
there's some margin, there's some space to it. And we're going to touch
on annual strategy. So you are going to want
to have a calendar handy. And then finally,
there's a workbook attached with a project
I've created just for you. Today, we are going to come away with three
main takeaways. The first is boundaries, and we're going to talk
about how to establish healthy boundaries in
both life and business. The second is how to prioritize. We're going to limit
non-essential busy work, prioritize the activities
that move the dial, and finally, create better,
more rapid results. And we're going to employ a schedule with
margin to build in some buffer zones on your daily practice and your monthly practice in
your annual practice, it's really important to
build these things in. So I've done a lot
of keynotes and presentations on
getting the goal. It's one of my specialties, gold planning and
implementation. But in this presentation, actually touching on the shadow sides of
getting the goal, the things that happen
to us during and after. I talk about getting goals a lot because it's that pep talk, we all need it. You got to pump
yourself up and get yourself going in order
to break the inertia. And we all need
that in our lives. It's easy to fall into
comfort zones in rats. But what we rarely
talk about is what to do when you're all pumped
up getting the goals, you have the momentum, you're going for one
thing after the next. And what to do with
that inertia when it shifts into overdrive, because we've all
been there as well. We're climbing the
mountain like we've got a V8 engine attached to us, riding high on adrenaline, running low on oxygen. And you may realize you have
no plans for the descent. It's actually the
dissent that can be the most dangerous and
mountain climbing. The majority of accidents happen on the way
down, not the way up. Comfort is a threat
to your success. A rut is a setback
to your goals. But the way you behave during the mountain climb and how carefully you play on your rest and dissent from that
exciting time is often overlooked and can be an
actual danger to your health, to your business, and
to your relationships. You can either play
on your descent and carefully follow
those instructions, or you can push too hard
and come tumbling down. This is so serious that over 80% of Everest accidents
happen on the dissent. And I know we can relate
to that in business. So don't be scared of
your next big goal. That's just a matter
of getting started. Instead, pay close attention
to how you balance and redistribute your energies
after the goals complete. Before we get started, let's talk about what a schedule
with margin looks like.
3. A Schedule Without Margin: When you have no
margin built-in, when you have no
edges, no buffer, no breathing room, no downtime, your workload feels
more agitating them. Motivating your day is hyperactive rather
than energizing, your schedule has simply
gotten ahead of you. It's a tendency to try
and force more out of an already overbooked
calendar that can take over your life and it gets ingrained
in us like a bad habit. Have you ever done that? Have you ever felt
super frenzied, tortured by
self-imposed deadlines? So rather than rest or take a breath to
collect your thoughts, you try harder, thereby
digging yourself even deeper. Well, a few years ago, I wrote an email with
the subject line, I fell off the wagon. I wrote it on January 23rd. And I say that dates
specifically because January 23rd is only 22 days
after the new year started, which would mean for me just 22 days after new resolutions
and goals had been set. New year brings with
it a frenetic energy, meaning it's unruly and wild and it's extremely hard to channel. Now, when I found
myself writing this, I fell off the wagon
email on January 23rd. It was the same year I
had deliberately set intentions to create a more balanced
distribution of my energy, a schedule with margin and time and space for
rest and recovery. I was really trying
to honor the descent, but as fast as I'd begun
the year was as fast as I forgot those
good intentions at this e-mail went on to include a detailed bulleted list in which I had behaved
in a panicked, frenzied, unkind, an
unloving way all day. Because already on January 23rd, I had managed to achieve this
pressure cooker situation. So here is just a sample of
the bullets on that list. I had a low-grade anxiety attack about business funds,
paperwork, and taxes. I ran my groceries
into the house to make up minutes because there was
so much on my to-do list. I ran my groceries into the house in hopes
of making up 5 min. I gave my family the silent treatment when we became late to an employment. Setting. My already tailspin
of a day even more behind. I gave the people that matter most to me the
silent treatment. Toward the end of the
day, I broke out in tears and started an
argument with my husband. Finally, I poured myself
a generous glass of wine and sat down to watch
the Real Housewives. If your schedule has ever
gotten ahead of you. I imagine you know what I mean? I imagine that your schedule
has got ahead of you, that you don't have a minute
to spare with a long list of goals to achieve and a feeling of
potential in the air. You may also sometimes
feel a panic, urgency creep up on you. Like you need to get all
the things done right now. And behavior like
this can become a rough downhill
tumble if ignored. The dissent is either going to be full of rest and
recovery and self-care, or it's going to become a downhill tumble that
you have no control over and you come spinning out of a highly
productive season. In that e-mail, I wrote, I started the year with
such good intentions, such careful self-care
that I can hardly believe that I'm reading
you this email yet. It's all true.
Yesterday was so real. It was how I vowed not
to operate this year. So let's talk about why
this happens to us.
4. Planning Fallacy: Okay, that got really
serious for a second and I'm glad because this is a
very serious topic for me. Let me ask you something. When was the last
time you undertook a giant project with
plenty of time for the process to unfold
completely comfortable with your rhythm and routine and just feeling like this
couldn't get any easier. When was the last
time you did that? When was the last time
you surprise yourself at how much time you had left to spare when the
project was complete. If that sounds like an impossible pipe dream
to you or anyone else. Planning fallacy is the culprit. Planning fallacy is a
psychological phenomenon. It is people's tendency to underestimate how long
a task will take, even when they have actually
done the task. Before. I learned about it in the book Essentialism
by Greg McCune. And he shares a study written
about planning fallacy in which 37 students estimated how long it would take
their senior thesis, assuming all went perfectly, well, just entirely smoothly. And the students average for how long it would take
them was 27.4 days. And then the same
students were pulled. They were asked what if
they had some obstacles, some troublesome
sticking points. And the student's estimated
that the thesis with some challenges would
take them 48.6 days. The average time it took
the students to complete their thesis was 55.5 days. And only 30% of this study
group hit their estimation. In the book, Greg McCune rights. Curiously, people would admit
to having a tendency to underestimate while
simultaneously believing their current estimates
are accurate. So I love this when I
learned that in the book, it made me realize how I timed myself in
driving to my office. At the time, the office
was 25 min away. One morning, I woke up to get to the office before the sun rose. It was still dark outside. There was no traffic
on the roads and the traffic lights were
all green in my direction. And so that morning I woke up, got in the car from my
front door to the office. I made it in 16 min. It took 25 min to
get to my office. But one day in the dark, in practically the
middle of the night, I got there in 16 min. So what that means is for the rest of time,
if anybody asked, how far away was my work, I am going to tell them
it is about 15 min away. That's planning
fallacy inaction when the actual time to
my office is 25 min, but miraculously, I made it to the office in less
than 20 forever more. My answer to how far away is your office was 15 min and that's planning
fallacy and action. So we're going to take this
into consideration as we work together to build a
schedule with margin.
5. Ideal Workweek: Have you ever seen the exercise floating around about
creating the perfect day? They just says you would
list everything you want to do on an ideal day from the time you wake up until
the time you go to bed. The idea is to create the
perfect daily schedule. And then you try to replicate
that in your real life. And you tried to
actually make that happen in this exercise
agitates me to my core. I don't want just one ideal day. We only get a limited
number of days, about 30,000 days in a lifetime. If we're very lucky, I want each of mine to be gloriously enriching and unique. So I cringe at the
idea of scheduling one day from start to finish
and calling it ideal. What I do love is an ideal weekly schedule in which you outline an
optimal workweek. That way you can get your
work done and then go live. You're enriching and
glorious life around it. After all, my motto is and
always has been your life, your business, your way. Anything I create had
this message at its core. I'd like you to
rethink the way you schedule your week with
these things in mind. Looking at the target, the very center, and the
most important is intention. This is your must
do's your reasons why the true meaning
behind your work. If you have activities
on your schedule that do not align
with your intention, they do not belong there. It's really important that
your vision for your life and your vision for your business is represented in each and every
activity on your schedule. The next ring out
is focus in this is applying a tension
with intention. So this is looking
at your schedule as of today and asking yourself, are you paying attention to
where your attention goes? What are your key goals and
objectives in your work? Are you meeting them? Are you working toward
them right now? What should you have in
place a year from now? Are you on track to achieve it? Does what you're doing today. The activities on your
schedule today makes sense to the life in the business that
you're trying to create. And finally, the most
outer ring is flow. And with your intention
and focus in mind, are you time blocking your most productive hours
for your most important work? Are you time blocking each day for the open business
that you have filtered, that you have purified, that you know is going
to get your goal. And are you making sure
it's priority number one, when you get to your
workspace and your work desk, I want you to create
a routine for project completion and set the pace for a
marathon, not a sprint. Later in this class, in the big rocks section, I am going to tell
you exactly what my ideal workweek looks like as an inspiration for
creating one of your own. My schedule speaks to what
matters most in my life, and it's organized to an
energetic rhythm I've perfected and have
come to deeply adore. The goal is to have you
methodically apply effort in such a way that
the work keeps you always eager to get back to it. And I love that. Let me say it again. The goal is to have you
methodically apply effort in such a way that the work keeps you always eager
to get back to it. So you stop when the
power block is over. You don't grind and lose
your day and lose your mind. It's setting a timer
focusing on Open Business. Feeling like you've
accomplished so much inflow, knowing that your
time, attention, and intention were all there
with you while you work. And then being done, not because you're
exhausted burnout in just steam from being inside the pressure cooker but
being done because it's time to be done with that
work session right now. And being excited to get
back to your work tomorrow. E.g. the excitement of a new product might tempt
you to skip meals and put in extra hours under
extreme self-imposed deadlines, please don't do that. That's a recipe for disaster. Instead, give yourself a
comfortable timeline and set hours you can maintain
for the duration.
6. Goal Setting: Now let's look at goal setting. There are two guarantees on this roller coaster ride
to mastery and success. We need to know and be
reminded of this often, that this is what the journey
to our goals look like. We often think that it's a straightforward path or
that it's an uphill battle. But actually it
is ups and downs. It's a roller coaster ride. There are two things
we can be sure of. Number one, projects will always take longer
than you think. And number two, the muddy stages will always be thicker
than you imagined. Let's look at this
journey really quickly. It's something that I
personally have been studying and have been
sharing for over a decade. Whenever you come into a new idea or an
obstacle or a challenge, whatever it is you're
about to conquer. Next, it hits your plate, it hits your awareness. You're excited about it, you're ready to take
on that challenge it. You know, it's
gonna be a journey, you know, it's gonna
be a mountain climb. And you're ready to do
it is what we think. We're going to go straight up
the mountain, but actually, we were just full of adrenaline. We get full of good
ideas and we get to that creative brainstorming
phase where it's fun, you know what I'm talking about? It's so fun to go to work because you're
thinking of ideas, you're outlining, you're doing your favorite parts
of that project. You're doing all the fun stuff. And then somewhere around the, I'd say 60 to 75%
completion point. You hit the mud pit
because of the things that you don't love start
to bubble up for you. They need taken care
of or their appears some roadblocks are
some challenges or some obstacles that you
were not anticipating. And this is where you can
feel stuck and stalled. And if you have
some false starts, it's because of this
mud pit right here. Nobody quits projects because
they're fun and easy. We quit, or we walk away, or we get so exhausted by them because they
get really hard in this mud pit can
really truly last all the way to the
90% completion point. And this can be a frustrating
thing and it also can be a pitfall because you
can have projects that are so close
to the finish line, but they're so hard to finish. And so this is the
true roller coaster of getting things done. And then finally, finally, if you push, you
rebuild your momentum. Raphael, your adrenaline tanks, you can get through
that landmark. You can achieve that
growth and expansion. And it's more of
a stepping stone. It goes up, it goes down, and then it goes just
slightly up than it is this rocket climbed to success. So what we wanna do is we want
to create a schedule that helps you work
through these stages. One of my favorite quotes
is by Annie Dillard, a scheduled defend
from chaos and when it is a net
for catching days. It's very important to me that whenever
creating a schedule, the first thing
follows my motto, your life, your
business, your way. So when creating a schedule, the first thing that must go on your schedule
as your life, your life, your most
important moments, your family time, your
holidays, your birthdays. That is the most
important thing, and everything else
is built around that, then your business can
come on the schedule. When your business
comes on the schedule, the second thing you're going
to put there are the rocks. It's time to maximize return on your working hours and
crush your goals this year, most of the time, you sit down to create new goals or even
reevaluate your goals, It's typically something to do with the season of the year. So a lot of us do
it at New Year's. Some of us do it
on our birthdays. I love to even do goal-setting
during back-to-school. I love the fresh start of fall, and so I'm still in that
back-to-school rhythm as well. But no matter what
time that you are evaluating or resetting goals, it can become an extremely
frenetic energy. Frenetic meaning that energy is hyperactive, unruly, and wild. It's fueled by the
unlimited potential that we see in the clean slate
of a fresh calendar. While there's a lot of
good intention behind it, that energy has a short
lifespan and quickly feels more agitating
than motivating. This is the reason that
January sees a huge increase on fitness equipment and gym
memberships and diet plans. We're all looking to better
our lives in a fever way. But because that energy is
so frenetic and impatient, 95% of people will
have given up on their freshly set fitness
goals by January 15. No matter what
season you're in for goal-setting or
go re-evaluation. I'm here to ensure
you're not one of them.
7. Big Rocks: Now, if you've read
any of my material, you'll know that
I'm a big fan of Stephen Covey's
big rocks method, which he learned during another
business experts lecture. It's my favorite way to
organize a schedule. I base all my planning
around this method, then I customize the
plan from there. If you're new to the
big rocks method, what happened was
Stephen Covey's was at another business
experts lecture. And he put a big glass
vase on the table. And he filled it with big rocks. And the rocks filled up
the entire container. And he asked the class, is this container full? And the class said yes, it was. And then he pulled out
some gravel, tinier rocks. And he pours the
gravel into container. And then he looks to
the class and he said, Okay, is this
container full now? They're catching on
and they're saying no. And so he pulls out sand and he adds sand
to the container. And he says to the class again, is this full now? And then he pulls out water and it's the final
thing he adds, and the container is completely
full after all of that. And the truth this
illustration teaches us is, if you don't put the
big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all. So Stephen Covey asks, what are the big
rocks in your life? Is it a project you
want to accomplish? Is it time with your loved ones? Is it your faith, your
education, or your finances? Is it a cause or your
way of giving back? Is it teaching or
mentoring others? If you don't put the
big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all. And this is so true, man. Many of us start our days in the gravel layer
or the sand layer. The minor things and the big rocks are
the most important. So what are the big
rocks for your business? This is also where
boundaries are born. Boundaries are
essential to balance and they're essential
to your success. So if you don't say
no to some things, if you don't whittle
down your priority list, then you will not
be able to complete the big rocks and give them the attention
that they deserve. Before we move on. And now that we've
covered the big rocks and goal-setting and
the ideal workweek. I'm going to tell you
what my ideal workweek looks like as an inspiration for creating one of your own. My schedule speaks to what
matters most in my life, and it's organized to
an energetic rhythm that I've perfected and have
come to absolutely adore. To begin, I time block
the things that are most important to me
and I do that first. So the first thing that's going on my calendar each week is time for and with
family and friends. The next thing I'm putting
on my calendar is workouts. My health vital. If
I'm not healthy, I can take care of anybody else. After that. I'm putting
study time on my calendar. I want to keep my
mental wits about me. I want to stay sharp. I want to stay at
the top of my game. The next thing that
goes on my calendar is absolute screen free time. This is digital free time. I don't wear a watch. I don't use a phone. I rarely know what time it is when I'm
in digital free time, and it is truly a gift. It's become a reward
for a schedule. Well done. The next
thing that goes on my calendar is
business buildings currently passive income for me. Mostly. I always want to make
sure that it gets time on my calendar and then
I'm always building and growing and adding
bricks to that building. The last thing on my calendar that's not really
on my calendar, but deserves an honorary
spot, is good sleep. It is so important that I get a restful night
sleep each night. Now I just listed six big rocks and I'm gonna go ahead and take sleep off the table
because I don't really track that timewise. I just follow a good routine. So that leaves five big
rocks that I actually am putting on my ideal
workweek each week. Going back through them,
I'm going to now give you an estimate of time that
I spend on each one. So time for or with
family and friends, the average time I spend
there are dedicated there is probably about 8 h a week. The next was my workouts
and I dedicate up to 4 h per week on
weight training. The next was study a time. And again, my mental fitness
is this important as my physical fitness
and I dedicate up to 4 h per week on study time. Then finally, screen
free, mornings or days. I put in at least 6 h per week. Screen free. I try to do more, but no matter what. I'm getting at least six
deliberately screen free hours. Now if I totaled up all of the big rocks
in my ideal week, it adds up to 26 h. And trust me, if
you're short on time, I know that's not a
small amount of time, but your ideal week
should include the big rocks and time
spent with intention. You have 26 h, it's
going somewhere. It's just time to set it with intention and make sure that your time goes to
the correct places. 26 h may seem like a lot. However, people
give 40 plus hours to their careers each
week without question. And there are 168
h total in a week. So I don't think it's
asking too much to dedicate 20 to 30 h per week on the
biggest rocks in your life. I'm going to call that
my big rock schedule and everything else on my schedule fits in between my
big rock schedule. That's how I plan my calendar
in that exact order, and all the other things
that make up my life, my work schedule, my
appointments, my meetings, home organization, cleaning,
cooking, et cetera. It all fills in between because what I
mentioned, my friends, my family, my health, my my business, my
family's finances. Those are my biggest rocks. Those are what goes
into the jar first, the gravel, the sand, or all the other things that
need to get done in a week. We all have to do
all the things, but we need to make sure the
big rocks get attended two first and then the rest of the schedule can
fit in the jar. I've played with this
routine quite a bit. I've experimented, I've
done trial and error. And where I've landed is
that my Monday through Wednesday is really
strictly scheduled. It runs like clockwork. And then my Thursdays and Fridays become a little
bit more lenient. They include the fun stuff
like the screen free time. And let me tell you, it sounds like it will
be hard to begin with, but screen free time is like
returning to your childhood. Screen free time is getting
to know yourself again. It's just tuning out all of the distractions
that you don't even realize are bombarding you all day long and really
reconnecting with yourself. And it's a giant reward. And I do mine on
Thursday mornings, and I look forward to
Thursday mornings after a hard earned Monday through
Wednesday each week. And it's such a gift. After an ideal week
full of schedule and productivity and getting things done in honoring
my biggest rocks. Saturdays and Sundays are luxuriously reserved for
whatever I want to do. Whenever I feel like doing it. I get up whenever I want
I putz around the house. I do some good things. I do some just totally
just watching Netflix, relaxing, verging out things. And it's just for
whatever comes up. I always feel that at the
end of an ideal week, I've really earned that time. So people pour so much into their careers and their
businesses without question, they're giving 40 plus
hours of their lives away. They think there's not enough
time for the rest of it. The important stuff in their
life or this steady routine that serves them and their
biggest rocks in their life. But I promise you, nobody was put on
this earth to be a devout employee and make the company that they
work for richer. That's not why we're here. Career achievements can
be really addictive because they're
instant gratification. They happen right now, you do something and you
get the immediate reward. On the other hand, family, friends, your health, your
mind, your well-being. They don't necessarily offer the same instinct gratification, but they're the things
that matter the most. Your big rocks are your long-term
investments and they pay off far longer than any other
career achievement would. I've really enjoyed discussing big rocks in the things that matter most in life with you. Let's close with building and creating a
schedule with margin.
8. Add Margin: But here we're talking
about adding margin. And ideal schedule for
you is going to include boundaries which then create a lot of room to
focus and breathe. Have you been breathing lately? I love asking this question. Always prompts a deep
breath out to me. The feast or famine, pressure cooker we often
create for ourselves doesn't allow many
healthy deep breaths. It's time to remedy
that once and for all. The way to add margin
is a two-step process. You need to schedule
time to unplug. If it's important, you
have to schedule it. Going to schedule in your
family and your downtime first. If you don't create
room to breathe, nobody else will
create it for you. The second thing
you're gonna do is you're going to
schedule the rocks. So schedule the big rocks, schedule the money makers, or schedule the
next level leaps. Whenever you are working
through your annual plans. This is what you
need to think about. When you look at the
year at a glance, and it doesn't have
to be at the start of the year whenever you have the time and the space to do
some annual planning start, don't wait till it's January. Don't wait until
it's your birthday. Start whenever you
need it the most. And make sure you schedule
in time to unplug and rest. If you're going to plan
big launches, big things, big programs, big
products, big reveals. If you're gonna be
vulnerable out in the world, make sure you schedule
in the dissent. Make sure you give yourself
time to retreat and recover. And just give that self-love. Scheduling your birthdays and
holidays that goes first, that those are the big rocks. Those are the memories
that you're creating in life schedule and your
vacations schedule those first. And then you can move on to the big rocks
in your business, your life first,
then your business. When you have your
annual plan outlined, you can move into monthly. And I'm also providing some monthly templates
that you can enjoy. When you are thinking about
what you're doing monthly, you need to move those
big annual plans if it's occurring in that month, move those big annual
plans so you remember it, it's front and center
on your monthly plans. And then you need to look
at your overall workflow. And you're going to
schedule on tasks that keep you on time. Tasks that gave you a head. Tasks that allow you to seek and find new customers
for your business. You need to schedule time to clear up unfinished business. Plan for planning fallacy, leave some room,
leave some margin. And scheduled breaks
that allow you to refuel your creative
energy on a regular basis. These things are very important. And then you're
going to get into your weekly schedule and that might be something
you look at it and in a daily plan or your
project management solution, if you use Asana or
something like that, when you're looking at
your weekly routine, make sure it is a routine. Make sure you have regularly scheduled breaks and batching, routine of production and rest. So think of this as
mini mountain climbs. Yes, you're going to have
your big annual plan. You know, you're going to
climb Everest at some point. But, but think of your
weeks as many mountains that you have to
climb because you're gonna do a lot of production. You are going to climb
and complete and makes sure the weekly schedule is allowing you some time
to rest and recover. The descent is the
most dangerous and you're doing many
dissents all the time. Then finally, when you
get to your daily, when you are showing
up every day, especially to avoid
the daily scramble. Every day, are my highest
priorities being honored? Am I paying attention with intention in order
to create the life, the career, the
business that I want. And that concludes a
schedule with margin. I want to thank you so much
for joining me today and I wish you a most productive
and restful year. Both of those things,
production and rest. Climb those mountains
as hard as you can and rest for as long as you
need to thereafter. It is always a pleasure
being with you. Thank you so much for joining me for this discussion about
a schedule with margin. It is so important to me, I think it's one of the
most critical things we need to do to ourselves. It is by building
a schedule with margin that we're able
to build in some buffer, we're able to obliterate
that busy work and that's scrambling and really
get good things done. So I wish you the best and I'll see you in
the next lesson.
Lisa Jacobs, Fractional COO
