December 2006

Composing a Life: Three Methods to Design Balance into Your Life

The wonderful French "salade composée” is a “composed” or “combination” salad. More satisfying and enriching than a green salad, a salade composée contains a variety of ingredients: vegetables for vitamins and fiber, cold meats for protein, cheese for calcium, and a little oil to provide the essential fatty acids. The combinations are endless.

In balancing your work and non-work life, it is helpful to think about selecting different elements—not unlike a creating a salad. The ingredients will change over time, because the life/work balance is dynamic.

Method One: Roles and Goals

In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey suggests you start by identifying the roles you play or want to play in your life: consultant, collaborator, spouse/partner, friend, community member, etc. Specifying these roles compels you to acknowledge your multi-dimensional life and plan it.

Next, create annual goals for each of these roles and list concrete ways to achieve them. Monthly, as you reflect on these goals, list to-do's. Do this to-do listing weekly and daily, prioritizing the lists.

Recognizing and acknowledging each role allows you to call your Mom when you're working on deadline, must pick your kids up from school and attend a WIC seminar. This method of planning your life can eliminate guilt and clarify what you want to accomplish and how.

Your weekly to-do list could look something like this:

Example #1: Organizing a balanced life around your roles and goals

Method Two: Aspects and Elements

Another way to recognize and organize different areas of your life is to acknowledge the different facets of your being: occupational, social, intellectual, physical, etc. For each facet, decide what is most important, recognizing that your priorities will change over time.

For example, in the physical realm, your goal could be to lose weight. Your to do's would reflect that. For example, you might decide to cook at least four low-fat dinners a week, ride your bike three times a week, and go to physical therapy for your back every other week, etc.

On a weekly basis, your schedule could look something like this:

Example #2: Organizing around the four aspects and elements of your being

Method Three: Camp Week

A third way to compose your life is to schedule a “camp week” periodically. The idea is to make sure your week includes, time for yourself and your family and friends as well as work. Camp Week can be useful when you ending a large project and have a week of uncommitted time.

Start by listing the activities you'd like to engage in at your own personal camp—everything from sports and scrap booking to nap time and field trips. Then schedule everything you must do first and then everything you would love to do. Save your schedule for future reference. For fun, give your camp a name with special personal meaning.

You'll end up with something that looks like this:

Example Three: Designing Balance in Your Life through a Camp Week

If you like, break the time slots into smaller increments, according to the rhythm of your day and your work and family commitments. Also, once each element is defined, you can add more or less of it.

Balancing life and work is a dynamic process. No matter how you approach your planning, keep in mind the paradigm of composing a life. Each of your roles, each element of your life is important. Each of them is part of you and who you are. Each is part of your salade composée.

Lee S. Raney is the founder and managing partner of Pivot Point Strategies, a consulting firm focused on revenue acceleration for growth-oriented companies and non-profits. She has more than 25 years of experience in a broad range of management functions, including marketing, sales, finance and operations. Lee received her MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and her undergraduate degree in economics from Davidson College. Contact her at 650-739-0500 or lee@pivotpoinnstrategies.com.