Manage your time to Improve Your Life – more time, more fun, less work!
Do you feel that you’re spending too much time at work and there must be more to life – perhaps you need to improve your work/life balance? Here’s a quick exercise to see how balanced your life is.
Or Click to open up a PDF of the Life Balance Wheel
The wheel is divided into eight sections:
- Health
- Money
- Personal growth
- Fun/Social life
- Partner/Relationship
- Career/Business
- Friends/Family
- Physical environment
Score each of the eight areas of your life. If one of these is seriously out of balance, you’ll be tired, stressed and unhappy.
Taking the centre of the wheel as 0 (completely dissatisfied) and the outer edge as 10 (completely satisfied), rate each area from 1-10 and mark each section. If this was the wheel on a bicycle, how ‘smooth’ would your ride be?
Life Balance
If you were to choose just one area to start making changes, which would it be?
What would you need to do to make it a 9-10?
- How would life be different for you if you had this?
- What would you do differently if there were nothing stopping you?
- What’s holding you back?
Depending on which area you need to focus, here are a few tips and suggestions.
Health – being fit, healthy and well
Are you a healthy weight for your height? How physically active are you – do you take regular exercise? Do you have a healthy diet – limited intake of sugar, caffeine, alcohol and processed food? When was the last time you visited the dentist, got your eyes tested, checked your blood pressure?
Money – having enough to meet your needs
Do you know what it is that you need on a monthly basis? Do you have any large credit card bills or loans? Do you save 10% of your income? How well do you manage your expenses, investments and savings? Would you like to have financial independence?
Personal Growth – get to know yourself better
What steps could you take this year to increase your own personal development? What behaviour would you like to change? Is there something that you’d like to learn to do better?
Partner/Relationship – being happy with where you are
If you are in a relationship do you and your partner have your needs as a priority and do you know what these needs are? How much time do you spend with your partner? Are you able to communicate effectively? If you’re not currently in a relationship are you happy with where you are?
Fun/Social Life – having time to relax and enjoy yourself
How regularly do you take time out for yourself to go and do something you really enjoy? This is one area of our life, which can get out of balance when we spend too much time at work. Arrange to do something this week to increase your fun.
Career/Business – enjoying your work
Is your job enjoyable and fulfilling? Do you have a plan in place to improve your career/business prospects, gain promotion or plan your retirement? How are your working relationships with your boss, colleagues and others around you? Get to know what makes them tick – after all they’re people too.
Friends/Family – spending time with your friends and family.
How often do you see your family? Who haven’t you spoken to recently that you’ve been meaning to call? Who could you talk to right now? How could you spend more time with your friends?
Physical Environment – enjoying the surroundings in which you live
What you come home to has an important effect on how you feel day to day. If you’ve got lots of unfinished jobs around the house or you’re not happy with where or how you live, look at what you could do to change it. Pick one outstanding task and aim to do it by the end of the week.
So what next?
Look at what you have scored on your personal assessment on the Life Balance wheel. I will be covering each area in depth over the next twelve months beginning with Health and Money in October through to December 2010. I look forward to assisting you on your journey to achieving more balance in your lives.
About the author
Clare Evans is a personal and business coach and Author of Time Management For Dummies. Her articles and contributions are regularly featured in national newspapers and magazines. She works with individuals, business owners, and busy working professionals though 1:1 coaching, teleseminars and face to face workshops.
She worked for over 20 years for a large, global, financial services company. She worked in project management, people development, leadership, team-building and mentoring roles for several years and bring these skills into her coaching business. You can get additional information when you register for her free monthly newsletter or download the free Time Audit at http://www.clareevans.co.uk.
Clare's contact details:
Work: +(44) 01273 588297
Mobile: +(44) 07887 954512
Email: info@clareevans.co.uk
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