Creating Margin

“Margin is the boundaries, the rest that is built into your everyday life. It is the space between our load and our limits. Margin is the gap between rest and exhaustion, the space between breathing freely and suffocating. It is the opposite of overload.” (source) 

I’ve never been great at maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Before joining Netflix, I was an integrator, and frankly, a work-a-holic. I thought working long hours was a badge of honor. When I joined Netflix, I committed to myself, and to my family, that I would be more of a segmenter. Due to a long commute, my family and I moved a bit closer to the Netflix office, and ended up moving back after a couple of years, due to quality of life issues. So, I got an apartment next door to the office, which helped by eliminating the commute a few days a week, but took me from my family. Even with the extra time I recovered, I was exhausted, I was not taking care of myself, and even when I was home, I was not fully present. I was stressed, frustrated, irritable, easily distracted, and unhappy at times. I was overwhelmed and burned out. My work-life balance was dismal. I needed more margin.

Margin provides time to create, relax, or recharge. It’s intentionally setting aside time to read, think, dream, relax with your family and friends, or exercise: a deliberate time to create more balance and deeper engagement in your life. It is the gap between rest and exhaustion.  

I blamed the commute and while it was definitely a contributing factor, it wasn’t the only reason I had no margin; I was simply not making the most of the time I did have available. Working from home these last six months has given me an opportunity to revisit how I approach my time.  

Before going on, I want to acknowledge the tremendous privilege I enjoy. My daughter is an adult, living on her own, so I have no small children for whom to care, nor are my parents still with us. I’m able to work remotely and earn my full salary, and I have excellent health care. I have a loving partner and friends with whom to share the quaranteaming experience. I am tremendously grateful.

There are lots of strategies for creating margin in your life - just Google it. Eliminating the commute was the first step for me to create some margin. Subsequent to that, I looked at prioritizing the most important meetings, eliminating some and changing the cadence on others. I delegated more tasks and responsibilities to our stunning people leaders. We prioritized social and learning activities. And, I started to make time for self-care, but was inconsistent in execution.

All of these actions provided me space for margin, but I had to work harder to make it a priority. I decided to design my “ideal work week”. I started by thinking about my personal energy patterns and how best to serve the AIM team and our partners. I recognized that my most creative time is early in the morning. I also recognized that video calls are draining and the best time for those interactions (for me) is mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Late afternoons are excellent for reading and wrapping up the day. Oh, and I needed time for mindfulness and physical workouts, both of which I had been neglecting. With all of that in mind, I designed my “ideal work week”:

Note: PES (Product Edge Systems) is my parent organization, AIM (Access & Identity Management) is the organization that I lead, and PEAS (Product Edge Access Systems) is one of the development teams in AIM, which I am currently managing directly.

This is an aspirational schedule and I’m working with my amazing administrative assistant to make it a reality. The core hours of the day are allocated for team and partner interactions, with the early morning hours set aside for planning, thinking, strategizing, writing and recruiting, and the later afternoon for reading, watching videos of meetings I missed, and wrapping up the day. I get my meditation time in the morning, and my Peloton / swimming time in the afternoon. The color-coding helps me see at a glance if my schedule is balanced and if I’m achieving my margin goals.  

As I was putting together this schedule, and as someone who considers themselves a servant leader, I found that I was feeling a bit selfish, and perhaps a little guilty. In taking time for myself, for my deep work and personal well-being, am I taking time away from my team and partners? Upon reflection, I came to realize that, by taking care of myself and segmenting time for me to do my deep work, I’m actually a better leader and a better partner, because I’m focused and refreshed for the interactions I have. Setting expectations with the team and partners will help achieve alignment on this approach, and will also help me avoid another risk: “borrowing on margin”. I know myself; I will be tempted to steal my margin for meetings and other requests. This is probably my biggest challenge in implementing this plan and I hope you can help hold me accountable. I’ll let you know how it goes!

I’m planning on using the next several months to really lean into and hone this schedule. I’ve already put some of the plan into action, and in addition to my morning meditation and afternoon workout, I’ve been enjoying my evenings with family & friends, solving jigsaw puzzles, cooking new recipes, riding my new electric scooter around the neighborhood, playing cards and board games, and laughing a lot more than I have in a while. I may even learn a new language!

I realize that we are living in unprecedented and unusual times. I’m hopeful, and determined, to maintain my newly found margin when the pandemic has passed. I plan to take advantage of the location flexibility that Netflix is offering us, and as we become better at a remote-inclusive work culture, continue to spend part of my time working remotely.

How are you ensuring you have margin in your life? What ideas can you share with your colleagues? 

Karen Casella is an Engineering Director at Netflix, the world’s leading internet television network. Karen leads the engineering teams responsible for Access & Identity Management for the Netflix product. Connect with Karen on LinkedIn or Twitter.