Children draw pictures. They will often work hard to fill the paper with lines, shapes, and colors. I remember trying to cover every inch of a sheet of paper with something. With anything.

We still do this as adults.

We now use time time instead of construction paper.

For many of us, literally, every minute of the day is covered with something. Work. Email. Check the phone. Write the report. Fill the space. If we’re not watching “Game of Thrones”, we can be playing “Game of Thrones” - and do it all while waiting in a checkout line.

Do you wonder why some of your best ideas come to you in the shower?
It’s because, for many people, the shower is the only time the brain isn’t having to process input. No screens. No media. No conversations. It’s just you, the hot water, and headspace. That's a recipe for productivity.

Blank space.

The same can happen on a long drive (without listening to anything) or a long walk in the woods.

Here’s a liberating idea.

Every moment doesn’t need something filling it.

Every well-designed thing has blank space, whether architecture or a website or a children’s book.

Or your life.

Use the hard lines of your calendar to create blank space in your life on a daily basis. It’s in the blank space that you find the room to connect the disparate dots.

That’s how to create value.