Do you want to improve your overall life satisfaction but don't know where to start?
This article serves as a practical guide, offering a structured approach to evaluating your life portfolio to inspire meaningful change.
According to a recent article published by the Harvard Business Review, we tend to spend our time, energy and money on Six Strategic Life Areas and 16 Strategic Life Units (see Table 2 below).
This framework prompts a critical examination of the importance and satisfaction we derive from each facet of our lives. By assessing these components, you will embark on a journey of self-discovery to gain invaluable insight into how you currently live your life and inspire you to find ways to improve your overall life satisfaction!
First, set up a table below and rate from 1 to 10:
How important are each of the below to you?
How satisfied are you with each aspect of your life right now?
Table 1: Strategic life areas and units
Strategic Life Areas | Strategic Life Units | Descriptions | Importance (1-10) | Satisfaction (1-10) |
Relationships | Significant other | Time with partner, dates | ... | ... |
Family | Engaging with kids, parents, siblings | ... | ... | |
Friendship | Time with friends | 8 | 3 | |
Body, mind and spirituality | Physical health/sports | Exercise, physical therapy | 8 | 4 |
Mental health/mindfulness | Psychotherapy, meditation | ... | ... | |
Spirituality/faith | Religious practice | ... | ... | |
Community and society | Community/citizenship | Membership in local clubs, jury duty | ... | ... |
Social engagement | Volunteering, activism | ... | ... | |
Job, learning, and finances | Job/career | Work | 9 | 8 |
Education/learning | Classes, training | ... | ... | |
Finances | Planning, investing | 9 | 2 | |
Interests and entertainment | Hobbies/interest | Reading, collectibles | ... | ... |
Online entertainment | Social media, TV, gaming | 5 | 5 | |
Offline entertainment | Vacations, theater, sporting events | ... | ... | |
Personal care | Physiological needs | Eating, sleeping | 9 | 9 |
Activities of daily living | Commuting, housework | ... | ... |
Table adapted from table in Assess Your Life Portfolio
High Importance & Low Satisfaction
3. For activities you rated as highly important (scores>5), but low on satisfaction (<5), think about specific ways you can invest more time and energy to improve your overall life satisfaction.
For example, Table 2 shows Friendship, Physical health/sports and Finances may be highly important for you, but you are the least satisfied with how these are going.
Improving your satisfaction with these aspects of your life may include connecting with a friend either online or in-person at least once every two weeks (Friendship), getting a membership at a gym to force yourself to exercise more (Physical health/sports), and devoting yourself to investing 20% of your monthly income starting next month(Finances).
What activities should you spend more/less time on?
Now that you know what aspects of life are the most and least important to you, it's time to examine what activities you spend your time on. This will help you decide which types of activities you should do more of and which you should be cutting down.
4. List the top 10 activities you spend your time on nowadays, rate how important is it to you, and count how many of the strategic life units (in the above table) does each of the activities fulfill.
For example, going to a group fitness class with a friend may be very important to you (score of 9), and it satisfies 4 SLUs, including:
Friendship
Physical health/sports
Hobbies/interests
Offline entertainment
Whereas watching Netflix is less important to you, and it only satisfies 1 SLU of Online entertainment.
Table 2: Activities
Top 10 Activities | Importance (1-10) | Number of Strategic Life Units (SLUs) Satisfied |
Group Fitness with a friend | 9 | 4 |
Watching Netflix | 5 | 1 |
... | ... | ... |
... | ... | ... |
Clearly, the above results indicates you may want to lower the time you spend watching Netflix, and consider spending more time exercising with your friend since it can "hit 4 birds with one stone"!
5. Next, I'd like you to fill out Table 3 below to summarize what you've learnt.
Table 3: Summary
Top 3 Strategic Life Units That I Need to Improve On (Note: These are the units you rated as MOST important but LEAST satisfied in Table 1) & Specific Activities Under Each | Top 3 Activities I Want to Spend MORE Time On (Note: These are the activities you rated as MOST important and hits the MOST number of strategic life units in Table 2) | Top 3 Activities I Want to Spend LESS Time On (Note: These are the activities you rated as LEAST important and hits the LEAST number of strategic life units in Table 2) |
Physical health/sports: take a 20 minute walk each day after work, sign up for a gym membership | Group Fitness with a friend | Watching Netflix |
Friendship: invite a friend for a lunch/dinner date, video-chat with a friend you haven't connected in a while | ... | ... |
Finances: set a goal of saving 20% of my monthly income, read a book about financial investment | ... | ... |
6. Lastly, put the activities you want to spend more time on in your calendar starting this week! Which activity could you do tomorrow?
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