Good work-life balance is Friedman's domain: all four of them
October 2021
When it comes to setting goals to bring about personal change, it helps if we're organised.
In an earlier post, I drew attention to the immense value of the Wheel of Life by Paul J Meyer for providing an at-a-glance diagnosis of our current satisfaction levels across various aspects of our life. Another useful approach comes from Stewart Friedman, the founding director of the Work Integration Project at the University of Pennsylvania. Friedman has a lot of expertise in this area having advised leading business and political figures.
To get us organised, Friedman helps us to compartmentalise our lives by using what he identifies as The Four Domains.
These domains are:
WORK: what we do to earn a living and what steps we take to advance our career.
HOME: this is about our family/loved ones and the daily tasks we carry out to keep the home running as smoothly as possible.
COMMUNITY: our neighbourhood and the wider world as well as our social life and the friends with whom we spend time.
SELF: our private identity as well as the well being of our mind, body and spirit.
Friedman tells us that the aim is to achieve harmony and distribution of time and dedication across these four domains.
We should consider them each time we're planning our priorities.