How you spend your time has a massive impact on not only your daily life, but also your future. The most important thing that you need to do is balance work, leisure, and sleep to make the most out of your life, and this is where the 8x8x8 rule comes into play.
However, this concept may seem easier said than done for most of us. Managing your own time can be difficult. We have many competing priorities that take up our time, energy, and focus.
Without structure it is easy for our lives to get out of balance. But by implementing the 8x8x8 rule, you can get your life back into harmony and find a healthy balance between the time dedicated to your work, leisure and sleep.
How the 8x8x8 Rule Can Save You Time & Energy
With the 24 hours we have it in a day, we can break this up into three 8 hour segments. This is called the 8x8x8 rule.
The rule states that you should spend eight hours in each of the three buckets. Spend 8 hours working, 8 hours in leisure, and 8 hours sleeping. This rule will help you balance your daily tasks and overall life skills.
However, the one bucket that you want to protect at all cost, whenever possible, is sleep. With the 8x8x8 rule, the most important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle is getting adequate sleep.
Sleep allows you to do better in the other two areas and lets you perform at a higher level. While every person needs a different amount of sleep, most people require somewhere between 7 to 9 hours. Do not skip on this amount of time.
However, in learning how to balance work along with leisure time, you must first plan if it is required for you to work more than eight hours in a day. Between the actual hours worked and the commute to and from, most people will work closer to 9 or 10 hours.
This leaves you with 6 to 7 hours for leisure. When you think about it, that seems like a lot of hours in a day. Although this time can be used for many things, health and family priorities are also encased in this allotted amount of time.
Leisure time can be used for family, friends, or for some people even working more. However, in order to know how much time to dedicate to this bucket, you must first examine your personal goals.
Start By Reviewing Your Goals
How you spend your time should be a direct reflection of what you want out of life. Depending on what you want to you see happen in your life, you will need to adjust how you spend your time adapting the 8x8x8 rule.
Learning how to balance work, leisure, and sleep requires you to first know what you want and then determine how to get there.
Do you want to be the most successful business woman? Or do you want to be the best dad possible?
Depending on what you want in your life, you will need to make sacrifices. We all get the same 24 hours in the day. However, how we spend that time should align with our personal and family goals.
If you want to spend more time focusing on your career, then you need to learn how to balance work with the other areas of your life.
Being great at anything is going to take extra time. If you want to accomplish the highest levels of career achievement, you are going to have to decrease the amount of time in the leisure category and get just enough sleep so that you are at your best, every day.
On the other hand, if you want to have an adventurous life where you were able to relax or spend more time outside of work, then you will need to have a career that will let you do that.
On the contrary, if you really want to get 10 hours of sleep every night, you will have to be OK that your work or your leisure time will be impacted.
Find the trade off and balance that works for you.
Make the Choice for How to Balance Work
Once you have an understanding of your goals and you get the concept of the 8x8x8 rule, you are ready to make your choice.
What are you willing to give up to reach your goals? Furthermore, where do you want to spend your time?
Make the choice. Determine where and how you will spend your time. Once laid out, you will have a clearer understanding of how to focus your days.
Furthermore, you will learn how to balance work with the rest of your life. This is hard. Work can become consuming and make you feel bogged down.
However, if you understand your goals and your purpose and have willingly made a choice, this guilt subsides.
As long as you understand what you are giving up for what you want to accomplish, and you are OK with that, then you have mastered how to balance work.
Do not allow the opinions of others to hurt your feelings because of the decisions you’ve made. Only you know what the right balance is for yourself.
Furthermore, for each person it is different. Some need rest. Others need leisure. However, the balance and choice is up to each individual.
How to Balance Work When The Unexpected Hits
However, sometimes life has different plans. Sometimes things pop up in life that you never could’ve imagined.
In these times, you just need to get by, day by day or even hour by hour. There will be moments in life that tragedy strikes and your career doesn’t seem as important.
There will be times where your sleep is so low you don’t know if you can even stand up, even just one minute longer. However, just keep showing up.
Keep clocking in and keep your head above water. Eventually, the tides will subside and you will get some breathing room and your life balance back.
Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.
Are you going to be the one who toughs it out and stays flexible with the 8x8x8 rule? Or will you give in and quit?
The choice is up to you. Believe in yourself and know that you can have that healthy balance that works for you.
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