Chris at Murtworld has an interesting post on balancing the various aspects of your life.

I’ve identified certain recurring sets of mood, desire, energy levels, etc. that I sort of naturally cycle through, and each one is ideal for a certain type of action, thought or focus. It’s usually pretty obvious which one I’m in, and I’m now trying to play to the strengths of each mode while I’m in it. It’s very similar to the rather obvious advice of “eat when you are hungry and sleep when you are tired.”

Now, I think this sounds like a very natural way to progress through life. Your body tells you when you’re ready to do some creative thinking, so you exploit that time and make the most of it. Reading through Chris’ post, I realised that my body is naturally tuned to what he calls the “pragmatic mode” during my normal work day (9 - 5). I wonder however whether this is because I have trained my body to be pragmatic during the traditional work period?

Covey talks of balancing your life between the spiritual, physical, mental and social aspects. This approach helps introduce an element of discipline to your decision making process. It is a way of forcing yourself to allocate time to each of the areas that are important to your own personal growth and happiness.

Both methods have their own benefits. Chris’ allows you to maximise on what your body is attuned to at any given moment. Covey ensures you don’t miss out on aspects you recognise as important to your life. The issue I have with Chris’ “modes” is that you simply can’t live your life as a protracted whim. With Covey, you aren’t always able to exploit the mood you are feeling at that particular moment.

So, the questions becomes, how do we combine these two approaches effectively? How do we ensure we do not miss out on aspects of our life which we deem important but do not feel like doing (such as exercise!), yet maximise on how we are feeling at a particular moment?

I’m looking forward to hearing how Chris progresses with this way of organising life.