Making your life efficient

This is a follow-up post of the 4 bubbles of life, which you can find here. To summarise, there are 4 cornerstones of a complete life:

• Health
• Work
• Leisure
• Love

I would like to define what each category of life activity looks like, what are their benefits and limitations, and by the end of the 4 definitions, I hope I can make a claim that these cornerstones are complete and minimal, as in, there is no other category that fits as a cornerstone of one’s life in a way that is not a subset category of the aforementioned 4, and there is no way to merge either of the categories in a way that doesn’t take away from the meaning of it.

So let us start with the easy one: Health.

Definition: A health activity is an action, or a period of time, that is used towards the improvement of ones’ physical health.

Good examples of the aforementioned are: any type of physical sport, eating (can also be relatively unhealthy food, we’ll get to the distinctions in a bit), sleep, but also nature walks, staying in the sun at the right time etc.

I have made the focus on the physical health in this category, not that mental health is not important or is not indirectly targeted by physical activity, but because it is targeted by every single one of the bubbles of life.

This thought literally just came into my mind, so I have to write it down as a corolary.

Corrolary: All activity bubbles target mental health. There is no activity outside of either of the 4 bubbles that targets psychological health only. However, there are activities that target only the specific activity in each of the categories.

In terms of health, any form of prescribed recovery-style physio exercise, alongside supplementation, is a form of health activity, without any mental benefits, but no benefits in terms of work, leisure or love either. They unfortunately are the type of activity that, most of us, will consider a chore, so it will not fit in either of the categories.

Hoping this makes sense. I’m considering whether we could make a claim to give mental health its own bubble or not. For now, I’m trying to keep it separate, because I consider mental health to be the fuel that needs to be balanced by the types of activities from each of the categories. More on that later.

Now onto the next:

Definition: A work activity is an action, generally performed over a longer duration of time, that one performs in order to fuel their lives with income.

I would like to use a very general term for “income” in this instance. This is generally monetary value, but it can also represent favours, or doing something in order to earn value, time, renown, prestige, fame etc.

You perform a “work” action in order to get some “expendable benefit”. This is a significant cornerstone in everyone’s lives, since without working, in this day and age, we would suffer or die.

That, or we are already terminally suffering or dying from a condition. Since I have absolutely no knowledge of the types of conditions or people that have to live with a disability, I will refrain from making any form of conjecture on the kind of lives that they can live, and will only generalise my claims to people able in terms of body and mind. I am truly sorry, and I hope you are well and happy.

I will continue the discussion of work later. Next, in terms of leisure:

Definition: A leisure activity is an action, or a state of mind, in which one does something (or does nothing) that charges up one (or multiple) of the stores of energy that a human has (i.e. physical energy, mental energy, motivation, etc.)

In other words, this category of activities helps give you the necessary force to do everything else that you need to do as a human. Without leisure, people enter burnout, become stressed, or maybe literally physically or mentally impaired through overexertion. Many behaviours in this category can intersect the others, but there are a fair few that fit only here, generally bad addictions (i.e. doomscrolling, porn, drugs), but also good habits which have the potential of intersecting work (i.e. painting, learning, playing etc.)

Finally, we reach the category that I have almost not included, because it felt too close to leisure and/or health.

Definition: A love activity is an action that is done in a particular state of mind, for the sake of yourself, or another being.

People more clever than me have tried their hardest to define love, so I will not try to attempt to emulate any of the sorts. These are activities that can fit into other activities, but are not necessarily, or at least primarily motivated by gain, health or chill. In other words, not externally motivated, but internally, against your rationality. Because we are not rational, and we need to be irrational, because we love to love.

It relates to the times when you make gifts for people, without expecting anything in return, or feeling obliged to make them. It’s when you fix a light bulb, so that both you, and people around you can feel comfort. It’s when you take your pet to the vet, because you can’t bear to feel their pain. It’s when you make your own bed, because you want to do better today than you did yesterday.

And yes, love activities can also target yourself. You don’t do it enough, and many of your leisure activities aren’t done out of love for yourself.

Is this a complete model?

Probably not. There’s too many variables in each person’s life and mind to take them all into account, but for the most part, I believe the essential aspects of everyone’s life is part of one of the bubbles.

Now, there’s an annex system that I have just realised may be important to bring up. But I can’t take it anymore, I need to share with you a rather significant theory, regarding how your ability (or lack-there-of) to effectively target the 4 bubbles affects how happy and content with your life you are.

But how you target them has side-effects. And these side-effects will be the topic of our next discussion.

So bear with me, we’re getting there!