How to Balance Your Life, Part Three

This three-part series entitled "How to Balance Your Life" talks about how I manage to get stuff done while juggling all the different aspects of my existence. If you haven't read parts one and two yet, either scroll down or go here for part one and here for part two.

So this week I'll be wrapping up this trilogy by going over the circle at the top left, which represents - for lack of a better word - "Work" (if you can come up with a better word after reading this post, please let me know by leaving a comment. Thanks!)

By "work" I mean not only a job but also your passions and interests, so this circle can include hobbies as well. In my case, my "work" circle is divided into three parts: book, band, and my day occupation as a cat herder UFO watcher financial analyst.

So really, this part is all pretty self-explanatory. My minimum daily "book" goals are (1) writing 500 words, (2) reading a chapter of someone else's book, and (3) doing at least one thing to spread the word about Joel Suzuki (which includes my support for Autism Empowerment). Once those are done, a section gets lit up.

Now, there are days in which unforeseen circumstances (e.g. "life") prevent me from reaching these goals. When that happens, I try to at least do something - write 100 words, read two pages, whatever. And then I make up for it the next day, or the day after that. As long as it all averages out over time.

The same goes for the other two sections. For the band, whatever we have going on at the time usually takes priority, so my daily goal could be changing my strings for an upcoming show, writing lyrics, working on a solo in preparation for recording, etc.

And finally, there's showing up for work (those UFOs aren't gonna watch themselves.)

So that's it! A successful day. I've taken care of self (physical/mental/spiritual), home (family/friends/household), and work (book/band/job), and I'll be ready to do it again tomorrow.

Another benefit of this system I want to mention is that it gives you an incentive to spend at least some time on all the aspects of your life over the course of any particular day. For example, if for whatever reason I skip my daily workout in the morning, then there'll be this glaring empty space in my bottom circle staring at me, and as I get other stuff done it'll still be there, looking lonely and unattended to. So then finally I'll be like, "oh, all right, I guess I've lit up these other sections so I might as well take care of you now."

Anyway, I hope you found this series of posts beneficial, or, at the very least, mildly entertaining and/or informative. I showed you how I apply this system to my own life, but of course it can be adapted to whatever your own individual circumstances are. If you have any questions about it or want to say something completely unrelated, feel free to leave a comment!

Oh, and please consider checking out the Joel Suzuki series if you haven't done so already. If you have, thank you! Now, if you could just leave a review on Amazon (a single sentence will suffice), that would be greatly appreciated as well. Why? Because it's the right thing to do.

(The fast-talking guy at the end of the commercial says: support for the Joel Suzuki series translates directly into support for Autism Empowerment as well as a general culture of acceptance for people of all abilities.)

Joel Suzuki, Volume One: Secret of the Songshell
Joel Suzuki, Volume Two: Mystery of the Moonfire
Joel Suzuki, Volume Three: Legend of the Loudstone