You need both margin and padding in your routine.

In design, margin is the space outside an element, like the space between a button and a paragraph.

Padding is the space between the content of the element and the element itself, like the space between text and the button border.

Every project or activity has an element of chaos, or at least you should keep chaos into account to buffer for the unexpected. That’s where margin comes in.

Plan some margin in between projects and you’ll have some leg room and flexibility.

But it’s also important to plan for padding into each project. This is the space between all the to dos and micro tasks. It’s the 5 minute break in between your pomodoros.

It’s useful to think about both margin and padding, because we overestimate what we can do in the short term and underestimate what we can do longterm.

Forcing yourself to fit both into your time blocks, averages out your faulty estimations.