Allocate Your Twenty Four Hours Wisely



There is no doubt that we have limited time. We need to allocate this time to numerous activities according to our own life goals and preferences. What are those activities? I have categorised them into four major heads: Work, Health, Social Life and Happiness.

Work
This consists of the tasks that is expected while fulfilling professional duties. For professors, it can be activities such teaching, doing research, admin duties and many others.

Health 
The activities to keep yourself healthy such as enough sleep , good food and  daily exercising. Here, I am  concerned with physical health only. Mental health is assumed to be in shape if one is keeping track of  fourth head "Happiness" and also I am ignoring exceptional cases for simplicity.

Social Life
Giving required time to family , friends and society, in that order. It is crucial to give time not only to family but also to friends and society in general.


Happiness
One may extract happiness from various sources.  At times, we might get happiness from doing well at work , feeling healthy or being a good family member. Most of the time,  these sources are not sufficient. We need other sources such as pursuing hobbies, doing something new or just sleeping more. These sources are individual specific as some find happiness from travelling and some find it from listening to music. Everyone should maintain a list of things that makes them happy and should spend enough time on those activities.


What is optimal allocation of available time  among those four heads?

There is no numerical answer to this. Only guiding principles are available. Having a constant sense that we need to balance our time allocation is enough most of the times. If we keep on asking this question regularly , say once in a week,  "Have I maintained  the balance?", it should guide us to lead to our optimal allocation.


Notes: 

1. The balance of the four components  can be considered as an extension to "work-life balance" where life has three sub-components. This sub-categorisation gives us more clarity to monitor our time-allocation.
2. Motivation for writing this article: Once my PhD guide asked me , "How do you spend your time everyday?".  I know I spend my time among those four components. But as I was experimenting with optimal allocation , I didn't have a clear numerical answer to his question. However, I do ask myself the question "Have I maintained  the balance?" regularly.

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