A common theme you’ll find in the links is to have “life categories”. These should represent your life as a whole. I’ll use Keith Ferrazzi’s example:
- Financial Success
- Professional Growth
- Deep/Meaningful Relationships (friends/family/etc)
- Spirituality
- Giving Back
- Intellectual Stimulation
- Health
8760 Hours has 12. It’s up to you what you want to list as important for your life. If you don’t want to think too hard, just pick them from the various lists in the links. You’re not going to get it perfect the first time anyway.
The key benefit of having these categories is to ensure you are not spending too much time in one area at the expense of others. I know for myself, without such a list, I would likely make most of my goals in only 2 or 3 of the categories above, and continue to neglect the others.
I like Keith Ferrazzi’s approach: Assign a percentage of time you want to spend on each category.
This article is part of the series on New Year’s Resolutions.