The Four Burners Method

This strategy focuses on how to organise tasks based on their importance. It is a long-term solution to balance the four key areas of your life. The focus is on what you can do in a day and realising that there may be something that you will not be able to attend to, and that is okay!

The method associates your life with a stove with four burners on it. Each burner represents an important aspect of your life:

• The first burner represents your family.
• The second burner is your friends.
• The third burner is your health.
• The fourth burner is your work.

Traditionally, most of us try our hardest to keep all four burners on at the same time, which actually has a negative effect on all of them. We need to switch between each burner, making sure to give each aspect the same amount of attention. We cannot make work more important than our health, so when we get sick, it is important to take a day off work to recover and focus on the health burner. Then it becomes possible to come back to work the next day with more energy and return all attention to the work burner. We need to focus on what is most important at the time.

The key ingredient of this method is to choose one aspect to focus on at a time. If you usually spend the weekends with your friends, use one weekend a month to see your family. Your friends are not the only people in your life you need to focus on. So if you can take a little time from them to spend it with your family, you are discovering the balance for a happy life. Find a balance using this method, and you will be successful in all areas of your life.