Written By Kate Cosentino
Work life balance-the hardest balance to strike. There’s never enough time to live all of the lives I want to live, much less to check every box on my list or else I’d be a famous singer/songwriter, professional roller skate dancer, polyglot with the cleanest house you’ve ever seen. But alas— I’m only a fraction of that dream human being. In elementary school, I remember reading The BFG by Roald Dahl and learning that his mythical “Big friendly giants” did not have to sleep-saying, why sleep when you can live double the amount of time? That thought has always stuck with me. Life is so amazing and I don’t want to waste a second! It’s no wonder I’m a a three on the enneagram and I feel every single second cramming each one as full of as much productivity as possible. With that being said, I am constantly studying ways to combat my need to fit everything into the 7 days a week. Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is the most recent book to change my life layout.
Covey divides his schedule into quadrants to be re-evaluated weekly (or however regularly you want).
Image made by Kate Cosentino on Canva
As you can see in the image above, Quadrant 1 represents things that are both urgent and important. Examples include: deadline driven projects, urgent occurrences (like a car crash or leak in a pipe). Quadrant 2 are things that are important but not urgent. These are the things I typically care the most about like making music and working on my passion projects and career. Quadrant 3 is urgent but not important like maybe a call you have to answer or upkeep tasks you have to do. Finally Quadrant 4 are things not as urgent and not important so your Netflix and your Fortnite. Below is what a lot of my quadrant activities look like:
For me, Quad 1 & 3 are ever present so I use my planner to make sure I prioritize items in Quad 2. For example, I block out an hour or so daily for physical activity/exercise. That is not an urgent task but it is important to my mental and physical health. I also have to block out time where I’m working on me and my music because no one will give me that time but myself. Covey also suggests blocking in a healthy amount of leisure time from Quad 4. I think that is important or else you risk burning out and living in Quad 4. If I work too hard without a break I will get lost in movies and TV shows because I have no more brain power to keep going. If I schedule in fun nights with friends or time for my favorite show during the week, I get a healthy break that makes me more motivated to keep working.
I personally love using a physical planner with color coded pens and highlighters. I assign each quadrant a color. Quad 1 is pink, Quad 2 is purple, Quad 3 is blue and Quad 4 is yellow. It helps me visually how much time I am spending on each activity. This works well in Google Calendar where you can color coat activities as well-with the added bonus of a notification to your phone or two your email. Personally I love having the visual of these planners and blocking off time so that I don’t get too far behind on any of my goals—especially if they’re not urgent. And it makes sure I’m balancing work and play!
If you want a physical planner yourself I would recommend the Happy Planner of the Passion Planner. They come in varying sizes and layouts. I love the fun stickers and designs! Happy planning!