The latest episode of Best Laid Plans had a guest on that used MakseLife system. I have no interest to incorporate yet another system into my life but she mentioned the eight areas of life. Below is a brief assessment of those areas.
Personal. I honestly don’t know what that means. Self-care? Down-time? Planning? Travel? I can’t reflect because I’m not sure what to place into this category.
Fun and recreation. Those are obviously hobbies. For me: reading books and blogs, blogging, walks and hiking, and travel. Could watch more TV in this area: quality series and movies. All in all, I feel like I have sufficient hobbies. I wish exercise could be my hobby. Also, theater plays and dances with kids can go here.
Work and learning. Very fulfilled in the area. At work I teach AND learn constantly. I teach students, students teach me. I regularly look up new strategies, resources, and materials. My annual world language conference in NYC helps me learn, too.
Family and relationships. This category receives the most of my time and attention, parallel to work. Kids take up a lot of my time, clearly. T and I have a monthly date, then we hang out on the regular. Friends: I talk to them every other day on WhatsApp but we meet facet-to-face about once every two months. Mom group is also part of this category, mainly on WhatsApp, but we get together with neighbors. Oh, the two neighbors next door: we see them on the regular. Plus my two Russian friends who are also moms. As an introvert, I feel like I have enough connection. Oh, and I’m adding cooking and cleaning into this category.
Health and wellness. Exercise: lol. Movement – some. Walks and hiking, mainly. I am on top of my appointments (medical and dental, every 6 months) and even the dreaded mammogram! Apart from exercise, I take good care of myself with water, vitamins and packed lunches. Healthy staples: green tea with honey, edamame, chili, and peanut butter. Can always be better with exercise and reducing coffee and sugar.
Spirituality. This is my meditation and journaling. Morning or afternoon pages, my stream-of-consciousness journaling practice – different from blogging. I just reinstated this practice into my life last week and felt a jolt of motivation.
Finances. I am not a big spender so I feel good about this category. I do like to travel so that’s expensive but I not spending our retirement money on trips. Our paychecks go into a common account, but we skim a portion for ourselves, an allowance of sorts. I mainly save mine in Acorns and a high yield, then spend it on travel, or, rarely, on clothes.
Physical environment. House, classroom, garden, car. I am kind of a minimalist. My car needs a cleaning but it’s not stuffed. Need to vacuum it before the end of the year. We started doing some work in the basement and the garage – cleaning it and throwing stuff out. My garden is an ongoing process, and it starts in the spring. Garden is a space that crosses multiple categories: physical/spirituality/wellness/family.
That’s all I got for today.
Which area would you say you spend most time on? Are there are changes you wish to make?
**cover photo- R in a box. On Monday, he crawled into a box, and I was just putting away some laundry thinking he is somewhere around, playing, and when he crawled out of that box, he scared the bejesus out of me 🤣
Mom of Children 