30 Days of Balance - 10 Years On

We’ve finally made it to the last activity from My Year of TED!!! Which means there is now work to do to pull all of this together into another book. For now though, let’s talk about 30 Days of Balance as an activity and then how it has changed since 2012.

This activity was based on a single TED Talk, and my experiences over the previous 11 months of the project. This activity was based on Nigel Marsh: How to make work-life balance work - the outline for this activity is located here. This was always planned as the final activity as I felt it would be a great way to incorporate some of my lessons and realisations from the year into my life post-MYoT. Below are the outline and reflection sketchnotes:

How this has evolved

Out of every activity from My Year of TED, this one has gone through the biggest change since the project. Part of this is because in 2014 I left paid employment and started working as a freelancer - which naturally changes my work week. The lack of consistency in what each work day might look like alongside having many days working from home have brought a big shift in how I view life balance.

The more significant change to the outcome of this activity is that I have completely shifted my concept of life balance. The first is, you’ll notice, I do not call it work-life balance because my work is such a large part of my life that it seems ridiculous to split the two things. The more important aspect though is that I don’t feel the concept of a “perfect day” was working very well for me. This is partly because of the non-standard workday I have doing freelance, but largely because I don’t feel this is a solid measure for maintaining wellness and good mental health.

I’ve written about this on the blog, not long after the idea took hold. It’s the concept that we are constantly changing in our needs so, “Balance is achieved in the moments”. That knowing your values and being present/self-aware helps us maintain far better situational balance in our lives than some prescribed dose of time per day. So, now I focus on pushing and pulling and being more considered in my choices about how to spend my time and energy, especially when it is low. I find that it give me more flexibility and in being who I need to be and doing what I need to do at any given time.

It’s been a fundamental shift that I will outline more in the next book. “Oh, the next book?” I hear you ask. Yes, now that I’ve completed all the sketchnotes, I will be putting them into a book capturing these images alongside some of the key lessons and experiences from the project and post-project too. I’m hoping it won’t take too long to finish writing and get out into the world, but who knows what life will throw at me to possibly slow it down. I’m being kind to myself and not having a deadline right now, but I also don’t want it to drag because then it will never happen. Regardless, watch this space - or better still, subscribe to my mailing list (if you aren’t already) for updates as they arise.