Assess your life portfolio for your 168-hour week and reflect on your life strategy!
In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to get caught up in the demands of everyday life, leaving little time to reflect on our long-term goals and priorities. However, taking a step back to assess our “life portfolio” can be a game-changer. Inspired by the strategic planning tools used in the business world from the HBR article with title “Use Strategic Thinking to Create the Life You Want”, I set out to create an app that helps individuals to visualize how their time and energy investments are spent across the key areas of life.
The app is built using Vue.js, Chart.js, and the Vuetify library, allowing users to easily input and analyze their “Strategic Life Portfolio”. The process starts by defining your six Strategic Life Areas (SLAs):
- Relationships 🤗
- Body/Mind/Spirituality 🧘♀️
- Community and Society 🌍
- Job/Learning/Finances 💼
- Interests and Entertainment 🎨
- Personal Care 💆♂️
These SLAs are then further divided into 16 Strategic Life Units (SLUs):
- Significant other 💑
- Family 👪
- Friendship 🤝
- Physical health/sports 🏃♀️
- Mental health/mindfulness 🧠
- Spirituality/faith ✨
- Community/citizenship 🌳
- Societal engagement 🗳️
- Job/career 💼
- Education/learning 📚
- Finances 💰
- Hobbies/interests 🎨
- Online entertainment 📱
- Offline entertainment 🎮
- Physiological needs 🍽️
- Activities of daily living 🛀
You can use both the table to enter the data or:
- Download the CSV data
- Edit the file in Excel or another spreadsheet program
- Modify the data as needed
- Import the updated CSV file back into the app
Next, you’ll reflect on how you currently spend your time, rating each SLU on importance and satisfaction. This information is then plotted on a 2x2 grid, similar to the BCG growth-share matrix used in corporate strategy. The resulting “Strategic Life Portfolio” provides a visual representation of your life balance, highlighting areas of high urgency (high importance, low satisfaction) and opportunities for optimization.
As I went through this exercise, I was surprised to see that a significant portion of my weekly time (around 60%) was dedicated to my job and physiological needs (e.g. sleeping 🥱), leaving less room for hobbies, skill development, and other fulfilling activities. This insight prompted me to create a 3-month planning schedule, to better allocate my time and resources. I have defined concrete and quantifiable goals for both my work and hobbies.
The beauty of this app is that it can be easily adapted to an individual’s unique circumstances and priorities. Whether you’re grappling with existential questions or simply looking to fine-tune your life strategy, the Strategic Life Portfolio can serve as a powerful tool for self-reflection and informed decision-making.
So, why not take a few minutes to visualize your own life portfolio? Identify areas that need attention, set high-level priorities, and start investing your time, energy, and money in a way that truly supports your purpose and vision for a great life. The journey of self-discovery and balanced living awaits! 🚀
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