Everyone’s talking about work / life balance…is your life currently in balance? This question really asks: are you spending your time in the areas of your life that are most important to you? The below exercise may help you to answer this question.

 

Print the below life balance wheel or draw it up on a piece of scrap paper. The wheel includes different categories / areas of your life that you might spend time on or like to spend time on. You can edit these categories to suit yourself. Firstly, consider your current situation. Reflect on the area of your life that each segment represents and shade it in so that it represents how much time you are currently spending in that area of your life. For example if I was exercising regularly and eating well and was happy with the amount of time I was spending on my Health then I would shade in the entire health segment. If I was working long hours and not seeing my family a lot then I would fully shade in my career segment and only shade my family segment a small amount.
 

Next, consider how you would like to ideally be spending your time. Choose a new colour and in the same life balance wheel shade over the top of your current situation so that your new shading represents the time you would like to be spending in each of the different categories. Remember to be realistic when doing this. For example I might prefer not to work at all and would like no shading in my career segment however if I need money to live then I should shade in this segment based on how I would like this area to look, realistically.

 

The last thing to do is to look at your wheel and see if there are any differences between your current situation and your ideal situation. If there are no differences then you are living a life that for you is balanced and you are spending your time in the areas of your life that are important to you. If there are differences, and for most people there are, consider the following questions - 

• What areas of your life do you feel you are spending the right amount of time on?
• What areas of your life would you like to spend more time on?
• What can you do to change your current situation to be more like your desired situation?
• Are there any activities in your life that you spend time on that you do not value and may be able to stop doing?

Also, think outside the box if you need to get more balance! Can you combine some activities??? For example could you go to yoga (health and spiritual) with a friend (relationship)?

If your life isn't balanced the way that you want, reprioritise where your time is being spent and make sure that when you do this you ask yourself, is this realistic? Start small and change a few habits to work on achieving a more balanced lifestyle.