A Simple Way to Find More Balance in Your Life
Make sure you’re not missing out on life while you’re busy being productive.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the productivity that our society rewards.
Being productive, which often just looks like being permanently busy, is a huge badge of honor in our society. There are numerous articles, books, courses, and videos on how to be more productive. There are apps and software that will help you. There are routines you should follow. Desk set-ups you should try.
But this relentless focus on being productive shifts our lives way out of balance. We find ourselves having less and less free time and increasingly becoming more and more burnt out and unhappy.
We need to actively pursue balance in our lives, or else we’re just going to face a lifetime of work and chronic busyness.
Schedule one thing for love, growth, and purpose each day
My three categories in life are love, growth, and purpose, in that order.
It’s how I set my goals to ensure my goal portfolio is balanced. I have a column for each, with five years, one year, monthly, weekly, and daily goals for each one.
I’ve recently come to realize how important this is. We need to ensure that more often than not; we have something scheduled each day for each of these categories.
This is how we will achieve balance and how we can prevent burnout.
Without scheduling something in, for most people, it likely just won’t get done. We’re so busy all the time that if something doesn’t make it onto the schedule, it’s just not going to happen.
So we need to schedule it.
Love
This is family, friends, your relationship, pets. Make sure you’re doing one thing every day to take care of Love.
A date with your partner, a phone call to your mom, take your kid out for ice cream. Schedule it in.
Growth
This is anything that will make you a better person. We need to take the time to better ourselves every single day.
Maybe it’s a run, a gym session, an online course, a book. Anything that will support your growth. Schedule it in.
Purpose
This is your work — whatever that looks like for you. This is where we usually spend all our time and energy, and the category we schedule the heck out of.
You’re probably already doing this every day, so it’s really the other two that you need to focus on.
It’s so easy to get wrapped up in working and being productive and being successful. But we don’t want to come to the end of our lives and realize we missed the whole middle part of being productive.
Yes, productivity is great. But there is so much more. Make sure you take the time for it.
Want to improve your health, one habit at a time?
Sign up for my free weekly newsletter, Momentum. Each week you’ll receive one new habit to try. I’ll explain why it’s important and how to make it easy. This newsletter will help you create the momentum you need to move towards a healthier and happier future.
