If you feel rushed all day
always watching the clock
racing around
feeling like a chicken with its head chopped off
If you end your days feeling more behind, even when you worked hard…
there’s a good chance the problem isn’t your work ethic.
It’s your calendar.
Buffer time is one of the simplest rules I teach, but sadly it’s also one of the most ignored.
If you’ll give me 3 minutes of your time to read this blog, this is the difference between a business that feels calm and controlled and one that feels constantly frantic.
This isn’t about optimizing your calendar.
It’s not about 15-minute increments (those give me panic attacks).
This is about running your business in a way that actually works.
And in a way that gives you some margin (some empty space and breathing room!).
Sound good?
What happens when your calendar has no breathing room
When everything is stacked back to back to back, a few things happen if you’re a woman with a family who also has her own business.
Tell me if this is you:
- You’re late to meetings or appointments, even when you don’t mean to
- Or you’re on time but by the skin of your teeth and you feel out-of-breath or unprepared
- You rush through conversations instead of being present
- You forget things or drop balls
- You don’t look your kids in the eye while they speak to you
- You feel flustered and scattered all day
- You carry stress from one task straight into the next
- You have back pain or neck tension
And that stress doesn’t stay in your business.
Women without margin tend to snap at their kids
They’re short with their husbands
They feel critical of themselves
They drive more aggressively than they’d like to admit
It’s not because they’re doing something wrong.
It’s because their nervous system never gets a breather.
We aren’t meant to live like that.
A calendar with no buffer keeps you in a constant state of urgency.
Buffer time is an easy, gentle calendar rule
Alright. Let’s design your calendar to support real life.
Here’s what buffer time looks like in practice.
No meetings scheduled back to back.
Build in empty blocks of least 15-30 minutes between calls
Create slightly shorter meetings instead of packing the hour
I had a client who met with people on the hour every hour.
By her fifth call of the day, she was sometimes twenty minutes behind – and it would only snowball from there.
She was hurting client trust and stressing herself out.
We shortened her sessions to 50 minutes instead of 60 and built in a 10 minute buffer.
She stopped running late.
She had time to grab water, use the bathroom, take a few deep breaths.
Her entire day felt calmer.
Same work.
Better structure.
Why travel blocks matter more than you think
If you leave the house, travel belongs on your calendar.
And no, I’m not kidding.
Always.
Even if the errand is ten minutes away.
Even if you’re just picking up your kids from school.
I teach my clients to block travel for 30 minutes before and after anything out of the house.
- Appointments
- School pickups
- Vet visits
- Grocery pickup
On my own calendar, travel is always that dark charcoal gray color and simply labeled “TRAVEL.”
No thinking.
Easy peasy.
Once, I forgot to block travel around a personal appointment and a client booked a strategy call that ended right when I needed to be somewhere else.
That mistake alone reinforced why this rule exists.
I build in these travel blocks every Friday during my Friday FORTIFY time block. This is something I teach inside my small group coaching program called The Success Squad.
Never schedule yourself in 15-minute increments.
This simply does not work for women who work for themselves. Period.
It’s always better to have more breathing room than less.
Tiny 15 minute calendar blocks create panic.
So we avoid them entirely.
White space protects your energy and your thinking
Most women could have a much more calm and productive day if they simply adopted some basic calendar rules.
Buffer time should be non-negotiable.
Some women resist this and say things like:
- I wish I could do that
- My clients might get mad
- I don’t need that much time
And then they try it.
What they realize is that white space (empty spaces on their calendar) gives them:
1. Time to process what just happened
2. Time to think instead of react
3. Time to reset before the next task
High performers need this the most.
Your best asset isn’t how fast you can move.
It’s the gray matter between your ears.
When there’s no margin, you can’t think deeply.
You can’t see patterns.
You can’t solve problems well.
You just feel stressed and behind all the time.
That isn’t the way to build a business.
That isn’t the way to be kind and loving toward your family.
You need this space to think and be present.
Some of the best ideas and decisions come during what I call stare-at-the-wall-time.
This can only happen when you STOP RUSHING.
Buffer time changes how your whole day feels
Without buffer, women feel:
Angsty
On edge
Behind all day
Like their heart is racing
With buffer, they feel:
Calmer
More focused
More present
Less reactive
They stop skating on the edge of burnout.
They stop carrying tension from one task into the next.
They start running their week instead of being chased by it.
Start here
You don’t need to overhaul your whole calendar today.
Just start with this one rule:
Nothing back-to-back.
Add 15 to 30 minutes between meetings.
Block 30 minutes for travel (before and after the event) every time you leave the house.
Give yourself some breathing room, my sweet entrepreneur!
Your business will run better when you do.
And you will have more peace.
Want help creating more space in your week?
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