I think one of the coolest perspectives I have for segmenting my life revolves around two core ideas: growth and composure. Growth has to do with anything that moves you forward in life. Composure is what ensures you can keep moving. So what makes these two ideas important?
Keeping things simple
I’ve had a mild interest in self-improvement and productivity. Having glanced over books such as Getting Results the Agile Way and Getting Things Done and Eating the Frog and.. who knows what else.. they all share interesting strategies to organize your life.
I don’t believe there is a right or wrong thing to doing things for yourself. After all, everybody’s different. What is important to me, however, is to keep things simple because life is complicated enough as it is.
How do you use growth and composure?
Starting with composure, this is what is essentially the maintenance aspect of your life. Anything that keeps you afloat and living a life worth living falls in here. Here are a few examples:
- Events with friends and family
- Financial stuff like banking, investments, bills
- Healthy living, like diet, mental wellness, and fitness
Your life may differ, so feel free to throw whatever in this bucket helps you feel at ease or composed.
As for growth? The items you throw here is for moving you forward. Some examples include:
- Life goals, like owning a home, having children, retirement
- Philanthropy, like volunteer work
- Starting and/or growing a business
Every time I work, I make sure to take care of something from these two sides so I can rest easy knowing that I can be well today and better off tomorrow.
Making use of projects, too
It also helps to see your life as sets of projects, too. Each project falls under these two categories that can be prioritized according to your personal goals.
What is a project exactly? Anything that has an end, basically. For example, Ooning a home is a project that is completed when you move in. Another example is doing everything that is recurring for the month of February.
As long as there is a clear end to what you do, you’ve got yourself a project.
Be sure to prioritize
Not every project is made equal. When it comes to growth or composure, certain things will bring a great impact to your life than others.
To keep things simple, you can either work backwards from where you want to be (read:goals) or start categorizing your projects and adjust as you think about each one.
By prioritizing accordingly, you can focus on making substantial strides as opposed to spending time on smaller items that might not make a meaningful improvement to your life.
Concluding thoughts on growth and composure
Life is indeed complicated enough as it is. By categorizing your life around these two ideas, I think you’ll find a good distinction on where to spend your time that suits what you need today.
Thinking in terms of projects and prioritizing them helps ensure you deliver accomplishment that’s impactful for you. We only have so much time in the world, why waste it on the little stuff when there is bigger fish to fry?
If you a recommendation on where to organize your life, Notion is my go-to app. I like using their “Projects, tasks, and sprints” template.