In our delivery of corporate wellbeing programmes, the most important message is that individual solutions need to be just that; individual.
The people we work with welcome and benefit from the opportunity to spend a little time thinking about what's important to them and how they can best achieve peak performance and success, and so we'd urge everyone to set themselves up with one simple lifestyle strategy.
A simple strategy that works for everyone
We recommend that every single individual carves out and prioritises some time they can spend with themselves each week - a kind of personal personal review if you like.
The allocation of the time will depend on each person's preference - it may be one block of an hour a week or it could be 15-20 minutes, three times a week - but what matters is that the time is planned, protected and used wisely.
Less than 1-hour a week to keep your life on track
During these moments of review and reflection each person devises and evolves a set of key questions they ask themselves, with the answers to the questions creating clear priorities and a practical action plan for the coming days.
Questions to ask of yourself can be kept simple but the key is to check in with important areas of your life regularly.
This means that you'll only ever be a few days away from understanding your ideal balance in life and implementing what you need to happen to achieve this balance. This is a far cry from the situation many people find themselves in which is a feeling that their ideal balance slipped away from them long ago and it'll take a long time to regain it.
Some examples of questions that prompt quick and targeted action are:
Am I happy with my professional development?
What would I like more of in my life?
Do my short term actions support my medium / long term objectives?
Are my expectations of what I can achieve each day / week realistic?
Where can I delegate some of the things that take up my time?
Am I as fit and healthy as I would like to be?
Am I sleeping well?
Does my food / drink routine support me in achieving peak performance?
The vital factor is that the questions you ask are relevant to you and what you'd like to achieve in life, and that they throw up some new thoughts, perspectives and ideas relative to achieving and maintaining balance in life. All you need to do at the end of each review is take swift action on these ideas.
80:20 or 167:1
You're probably familiar with the 80:20 rule or the Pareto Principle - the idea that 80% of our results come from 20% of our actions. What we suggest is a variation of this principle - all you have to do is protect 1 hour a week, and use it wisely, to guarantee that the remaining 167 hours of your week are as effective and productive as you could wish them to be.