Today I’m kicking off something a bit different than I’ve done before on shawnblanc.net.
We’re going to take the rest of January and go deep on one specific topic. I’ve also got February, March, and April planned out as well. Each one with its own topic.
The big picture is that I want to hit on ideas that are especially relevant to the creative entrepreneur. From work-life balance, to tools, to audience building and revenue generation, to building a successful creative business.
This summer we’re on track to have something put together for those who are building a business and/or working to gain traction in their side project. But more on that later.
January’s Theme: Margin
A few months ago I wrote a 2-part introduction to Margin (part I, part II). In those articles I shared about what Margin in your life looks like and why it’s so important.
In short, Margin equates to breathing room.
Having breathing room in our schedule, finances, emotional energy, and mental energy is paramount. When you’re at capacity, there is no room for anything else. But when there is space left over — when there is margin — that space enables us to breath.
The feedback I received from those articles was extremely positive.
This is a topic that is so relevant to so many areas of our life. Over the past few months, I’ve received hundreds of emails from readers who’s biggest challenges are related to time, clarity, and their business or side-project.
Regarding time and clarity, I heard from many people who feel that they don’t have enough time in the day to do everything they want (or need) to do. I also heard from folks who aren’t sure how best to manage and schedule their time. As well as from people who aren’t sure where they should be focusing their energy.
When we have margin in our schedule, margin in our emotional energy, and margin in our creative energy, it can help tremendously. Moreover, when we lack margin in these areas, it leaves us feeling stressed out, anxious, and overloaded. No fun.
Which is why we’re going to take the next few weeks and dive deep on these topics:
- How Margin Enables Intentional Living
- Time Stewardship
- Regaining mental energy
- Margin in your finances
- Emotional energy and motivation
- Why margin helps you hustle and focus (do more in less time)
- Understanding overwhelm and how to move to the other side of complexity
- Overcoming distractions to do deep work and intentional practice
I’ve also got a few podcasts and interviews in the pipe with some good friends and surprise heroes of mine that have so much wisdom to share on this topic.
Keep tabs on everything-margin at this page we’ve set up:
That’s going to be the central repository, so to speak, with links to all the articles, podcasts, and other resources we put out over the coming weeks.
Free Video Presentation
To start things off today, I made a video presentation.
I thought it’d be fun to try something new. And so we put together this short video presentation.
In the video I introduce the idea of Margin, I give you some quick wins for how to restore Margin to your life, and I share some specific things I do in order to keep margin in my life as well as how I stay sane when life gets extra busy.
To get the video, just punch in your email below and you’ll get a link to the page where you can stream or download the presentation.