30 Every Day Things To Stay Balanced
Stuck for things to do to positively impact your balance areas? Look no further. Read this list and we guarantee you’ll get an avalanche of ideas.
The greatest thing the Focus Planner does is that it stops you from forgetting about the important things you have to do. This sounds a little strange, we know. After all, if something is important, then how can you forget about it?
That’s great in theory, but unfortunately we’re hardwired to pay attention to things that are urgent, rather than important. From a work point of view, that means that emails and small, easy wins often take precedence over the bigger impact projects without the immediate deadline (for more on this, read our piece on the Three Big Impact Work Tasks).
This hardwiring for ‘urgent’ things doesn’t really help us in our balance areas of ‘Home & Relationships’ and ‘Self’ - because these things generally don’t fall into the ‘urgent’ category - so work tends to get our attention more than these other important areas.
In the Focus Planner, we have specific areas every day for you to do something that contributes to these balance areas. Many people ask if they need to do something in these areas every single day, and the answer is no… and yes. No, it’s not essential to do something every single day, but if you want to build the habit and constantly strive for your best day, then it really does help.
If you’re struggling to fill those areas of your Planner on a daily basis, here’s some inspiration:
Home & Relationships:
- Call a friend (anyone at all)
- Meet for coffee/lunch/dinner (anyone at all)
- Call home/your parents especially if you usually forget to
- Read to the kids in the morning or before bed
- Help the kids with home work/assignments
- Cook dinner (if that’s not what you usually do)
- Do the school pick up/droop off (again.. if that’s not what you usually do)
- Drop in and say hi (to anyone)
- Ask someone about their day (and actually listen)
- Clean the house - even a bit (if that’s not what you usually do)
- Tell someone you appreciate them
- Review your finances and set/review goals
- Spend some time with your pet/s
- Do any simple activity with someone, completely undistracted
- Send a message to someone to tell them you’re thinking of them
Self:
- Workout/Exercise
- Sit and do nothing for 15 minutes
- Think about your goals
- Read a book/article/paper that helps you develop or disconnect
- Get a massage
- Do some yoga
- Listen to a podcast that helps you develop of disconnect
- Go shopping (for something that will make a difference in your life)
- Take a bath
- Colour in
- Watch a documentary
- Watch trash to disconnect (but not so much that you waste time)
- Go for a walk without your phone
- Devote some time to your hobby
- Spend some time on a project you actually like
Hopefully, these have given you some inspiration to nail those areas every day. There will be some things that happen regularly anyway - but when you’re travelling or when you have a big day at work, some of the smaller things are good to have up your sleeve.