If you stack enough ideal weeks together, you will inevitably end up with an ideal life. 

If you want to have a better life, it starts with making sure you have a better week–every week.

Why a week?

A day is too short.

Due to time and energy constraints, it’s not possible or realistic to fit every aspect of an ideal life into a single day.

If you try to fit too many things in too short of an amount of time, you will have to cut things short, leaving things not long enough to get anything out of them or really enjoy them.

Also, some things you may not want to do every single day, or find necessary to do every single day to extract the benefit.

And doing things too frequently can sometimes cause an inverse effect and render what would otherwise be beneficial not beneficial at all anymore.

The other nice thing about a week is that it’s long enough for you to get back on track, make up for lost time, and squeeze things in at the end of the week where time may have gotten away from you at the beginning of the week.

Why not a month?

In short, a month is too long.

We’ll just leave it at that.

A week is a good sweet spot.

Maybe you know that you want your life (and more importantly and specifically your experience of your life) to be better, but don’t know where to start.

You can use this as an easy fill-in-the blank, mad libs style structure to design your perfect week, and use my free habit tracker to keep on top of it all.

If you remain consistent with what you set out to do, you’ll know automatically that you’re getting closer to living a better life.

The specifics will be up to you.

Choose one or two things every week to go in each of the upcoming categories.

Then, you can determine what makes sense as far as when, how much, and how often you will incorporate each of these things into your week.

Depending on the activity, it may make sense for you to dedicate a full day, one hour every day, or a few hours multiple days a week.

Okie dokes, without further delay, here is what I have found to be the most essential components of a full and balanced life for maximum happiness, fulfillment, and mental well-being.

01  /  Connection

Connection is something we do to create new relationships or strengthen existing ones.

It’s what we do to bolster ourselves socially and bond with one another.

As a naturally introverted, reformed anti-social person, I have recently come to realize the power and importance of connections.

Because I enjoy my own company, and have a limited social battery, I often swing too far in the direction of defaulting to riding solo.

I don’t realize how important connection is until I spend (too) long periods without it.

Connections, relationships, and friendships make it much easier to weather life’s ups and downs by:

• taking our minds off our challenges
• giving us emotional and mental support
• helping us color an otherwise negative experience in a positive way
• illuminating wisdom that we cannot see by ourselves
• making silver linings easier to spot
• providing glimmers of light, laughter, and happiness

Connections make our ups feel “more up” and our downs feel “less down.”

Further, they render the majority of our preoccupations irrelevant by giving us perspective on what really matters and what really has the power to make us happy.

Every week, make time for a vehicle for connection, both recurring and one time, so you get the best of both worlds–a regular social interaction you can always have to look forward to, and a more impromptu social interaction to keep things exciting and shake things up.

Create a tradition you can do consistently like a Sunday video call with a family member, Taco Tuesday with coworkers, Friday date night with your partner, or weekly game night with friends.

Then, also say yes to (and initiate) impromptu social activities, like a first date or a hangout with a new friend.

02  /  Evolution

Mental evolution, that is.

It is from and because of your mindset that everything grows or dies.

Put time in every week to focus on deliberately shaping your mind to bolster the actualization of your goals.

This is the work of cementing a new belief system.

This is the work of changing your default mental operating system, the way you see yourself, and the way you see the possibilities for your life.

This could include affirmations, reading carefully selected books, or listening to intentionally selected podcasts that reinforce the mindset that you would need to have in order to make your goals come to fruition.

Your mindset was given to you involuntarily by your upbringing and default environment, but it's up to you to intentionally mold it to support your vision for your ideal future.

03  /  Production

This is the work of building towards a goal–the action steps towards the actualization of a project or objective that may be one-time or ongoing.

It’s the book you’re writing, the business that you’re starting, the job you’re working to grow in.

It’s what we’re trying to create in the world for fulfillment, for contribution, and for money–ideally for all three.

There’s a part of us that wants to feel like we’re earning our keep.

By nature, we want to create, we want to build, we want to grow.

As much as we fantasize about leisure, we naturally want to work.

We just don’t want to have to work and don’t want to work on things we don’t care about.

To leave space every week for production is to leave space for building towards a bigger and better future for yourself, either through (or alongside) a job, or creative or entrepreneurial endeavor.

04  /  Expansion

Expansion is what we do to stretch ourselves, to push our mental or physical limits.

You can only expand by doing, not by spectating.

Researching a skill does not take the place of practicing a skill.

Reading about tennis doesn’t take the place of tennis lessons.

Reading about training for a marathon does not take the place of actually getting out there and hitting the pavement.

Allow time every week to challenge yourself by engaging in some sort of activity that works towards building your capacity at a chosen skill or hobby, whether it be physical or mental.

*You’re not picking something new to work on every week–you’re choosing one or two things to focus on for an extended season of your life, and working every week towards mastery of what you chose.

05  /  Recreation

Confession:  I used the word “recreation” for the sake of consistency, as the OCD writer in me really wanted everything on this list to be a single word that ends in “-ion,” but the word I really want to use is much stronger–adventure.

As much as we crave the comfort of routine, we also require periodic deviations from it–this is what makes us feel alive.

Adventure is a little piece of extraordinary.

It’s something to do or some place to go that is new, that feels like vacation from your normal routine.

It’s something that evokes child-like wonder, and reminds us there’s a world outside of what we see on our digital screens, and there’s something more important than the roles we play in society and the default objectives and to-do’s that go along with those roles.

The best adventures take place outside in nature, where you can tangibly connect with a space that is not man-made.

But an adventure could be anything from a new restaurant in a different part of town, to an adrenaline-pumping skydive, or anything in between like a new hiking trail you’ve never done before, or a day trip to a neighboring city.

There are more exciting things to witness and experience than you know, so make it a regular practice to seek the unknown and pursue the unfamiliar.

06  /  Recuperation

Recuperation feels like a waste of time, but if you don’t make a little bit of time for it now, you will be forced to make a lot of time for it later.

An ounce of self care is worth a pound of burnout.

It is critically important to deliberately allow and create space for your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual renewal.

As stated in the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you are the goose that lays the golden eggs.

You have to take care of the goose, or else it cannot produce eggs for you.

Recuperation gives us the energy to keep going and the downtime to be able to come back fresh to our projects and responsibilities.

The importance of recuperation cannot be overstated, so build this into your weekly schedule without guilt and without negotiation.

Depending on your lifestyle, recuperation could be the spa, a massage, bubble bath, a long walk alone in silence, or a regular meditation practice–any practice for self care, rest, and renewal.

Self care is not a luxury-it’s a necessity.

It’s not for rich people–it’s for people. All people.

07  /  Reflection

Journal each week about:

• How things went
• How you felt
• How you showed up in the world for other people
• How you showed up for yourself
• What you can do better in the future
• Highlights and favorite moments

If we never stop to examine the outcomes we are getting as a result of our actions, we risk driving ourselves mad and running ourselves in circles doing the same things, but expecting a different result.

If we never stop to reflect on our experiences, sometimes it’s as if we never had them.

Avoiding self-reflection and self-correction impedes your evolution into the person you need to be to create the life you want to have.

Avoiding recognition of your favorite memories impedes your ability to fully appreciate the life you already have.

Pause, and reflect.

This makes you feel present enough to better enjoy your best experiences, and astute enough to better learn from your worst ones.

08  /  Organization

Okay, so technically there is an 8th component…

I kept the title as 7 components because…well I like the number 7 better than the number 8.

It sounds better.

OCD writer, remember??

Plus it sounds like less.

Sounds easier to wrap your head around.

But alas, there are 8 things and this 8th thing is as important as the other 7.

Organization entails setting up yourself and your environment for success.

It involves doing whatever it takes in advance to make the execution of your goals and tasks easier, so when it comes time to do something, you can just do it instead of preparing to do it and figuring out how to do it.

This could include things like:

• making a clear work to-do list in advance for the upcoming day or week
• laying out your workout clothes the night before
• meal prepping
• putting the book you intend to read on your bedside table
• creating a playlist of podcasts you want to listen to
• selecting your outfit the night before
• ending your work day by leaving open on your computer the program or document you have to work on first thing tomorrow

Basically, do whatever you need to do in the present to remove friction for your future self.

Organization also involves cleaning both your physical and energetic environments.

A clear physical (or energetic) space makes for a clear mind, which makes everything easier to execute.

This could include things like:

• setting a timer and cleaning up for 10 minutes every day
• keeping your closet organized, cleaning out your garage
• keeping your relationships clean by reducing time with people who don’t make you feel good

A little bit of organization should be batched once a week or once a day, depending on what makes sense.

Less clutter without means less clutter within.