Life Areas
When you read psychology books, you come across many schema to try. Here's one I made up, thinking anyone can do it.
Everything you do fits into one or other of twelve areas. Reflect on the amount of time you spend on each area and the amount of time you'd like to spend on each area. For example, you might feel that you're doing too much that's passive like "observing" and not enough that's active like "creating". Next, to change yourself, create a life rule. For example, "no more than one session* a day of observing except sometimes"; note the neat "except sometimes".
I tried my own method and, over a six week period, turned from a bystander into a visionary. Or I might have done if I hadn't invoked the "except sometimes" flexibility so often.
Anyway, see what you think, or rather, think about what you're about to see.
| Life area | Examples | Objectives | Links with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Necessities | Eating; drinking; washing; dressing; sleeping | Minimise time; five a day | Socialising |
| Organising | Cleaning; moving things around; buying things; selling things other people made; selling time (working); secretarial; social secretarial | Minimise time; efficiency. Neglect leads to sloth | Do this well and you can do other areas well; do this badly and you hinder everything else |
| Exercising | Walking; gymnastics; pilates; sport | Twenty minutes to half an hour, most days, is necessary for a healthy life; would be classed as a necessity if it wasn't so easy to skip | Necessities and competing |
| Observing | Watching; listening; browsing; reading; exploring a new place | Enjoyable, relaxing and easy to do more and more of | Socialising |
| Socialising | Talking to your partner; talking to other people | Myriad aims familiar from daily life | Blends observing (listening) and showing (performing to a small audience), and is commonly combined with sharing necessities (food and drink) |
| Creating | Making things; making things up | Satisfaction; fulfilment | Motivation can be low if the creating-showing loop is wanting or if other areas are dissatisfying |
| Showing | Showing other people what you created; selling other people what you made; going on a stage | It's likely you'll need to be content with a small arena for this area | Creating |
| Learning | Trying to get better at things; trying things out (experimentation) | It's better to learn a little and do a lot than vice versa, probably | Organising and creating |
| Competing | Trying to do something better than someone else | Satisfaction is fleeting | Exercising and socialising |
| Giving time | Volunteering; caring; nurturing; devotion | A mixture of desire and duty | Organising, observing and socialising |
| Relaxing | Taking a rest from other areas; sitting in a cafe; sitting on a bench | Necessities, observing and socialising | |
| Reflecting | Thinking about life and the balance between the various areas | Habit forming if done at all, hence aim for only a moderate amount of time | Organising |
There is a separate page of life rules.
* A day has three sessions: morning, afternoon and evening.
© Stephen Balmer