Most people would know that we need to have a work-life balance. But that is only a very basic balanced life. Since life has many aspects that cover the areas of health, wealth, wisdom and fun, the ultimate balanced life should be balanced among those 4 areas as well.
One day has 24 hours, which means we need to spend at least 6 hours for maintaining good health, making money, learning and having fun. But sleep usually takes 8 to 9 hours and sleep is not an active thing that we can control. Therefore, the least time we need to spend for each area will be 4 hours.
In order to have a healthy life, you need to spend at least 4 hours for maintaining good health; in order to have a financial worry-free life, you need to spend at least 4 hours for making money; in order to have a wise life, you need to spend at least 4 hours for learning; in order to have a happy life, you need to spend at least 4 hours for fun.
However, during workdays, most people would work 8 hours per day plus some traffic time, it seems very difficult to look for other areas instead of making money. Thus, one important aspect of balanced life is how to deal with work (jobs).
It is best that you can find a job that can synergize with other areas, such as Yoga teacher and tennis training partner (wealth and health synergy), researcher and advisor (wealth and wisdom synergy), E-gamer and pro-traveller (wealth and fun synergy). Please imagine if there is any job that can synergize all the areas, which could be a perfect job if the pay rate is also high.
But most people don't have those jobs. So the working hours should be well planned and allocated. For health area, you can have a healthy lunch during working hour, and you can walk as much as possible during work as well. For wisdom area, you can read and learn subjects that are related to your work, or have some on-job training. For fun area, if you really can't find any fun in the job, you can listen to some fun music while you are walking.
How about the traffic time? You can either listen to some fun music, or learn something (listen to some audio books) that you are interested in.
Finally, you are off work and go home, you can still try some activities that have some synergies between different areas, such as:
Meditation or study health related topics (health and wisdom synergy);
Playing Ping Pong or badminton with your friends (health and fun synergy);
Playing chess or other board games (wisdom and fun synergy);
Just use your imagination to think of many other creative synergies.
So a typical work day would look like this:
22:00 - 7:00 Sleep;
7:00 - 8:00 Make healthy food while listening to the music, and eat healthy food (1 hour of health and 0.5 hours of fun);
8:00 - 9:00 Travel to the workplace and listen to some audio books for learning (1 hour of wisdom);
9:00 - 17:00 Working hours with 1 hour of walking (while listening to some fun music) and 0.5 hours of having healthy food, 1.5 hours of on-job learning (1.5 hours of health, 1.5 hours of wisdom and 1 hour of fun);
17:00 - 18:00 Travel back to home and listen to some relax and fun things (1 hour of fun);
18:00 - 19:00 Make healthy food while listening to the music, and eat healthy food (1 hour of health and 0.5 hours of fun);
19:00 - 20:00 Doing some exercise and having some meditation (1 hour of health and 0.5 hour of wisdom);
20:00 - 21:00 Enjoy 1 full hour for fun (1 hour of fun);
21:00 - 22:00 Learn some things you are interested (1 hour of wisdom).
How about the weekends and holidays? That's much easier. You have more than enough time to allocate to the 4 aspects of life. For wealth area, you can find some part-time job or work on some project to make extra money, or you can learn how to invest your money.
What if you have already achieved financial freedom or you can retire now? Congratulations, and you will have enough time to allocate at least 5 hours to your healthy life, wise life and happy life.