Balance Your Life With 8-8-8!

The other day, one of my friends asked me how long she should study on a typical workday, so I thought about writing a blog post that may help give an answer. The 8-8-8 rule or the rule of 8 is a simple yet far-reaching technique that can help you balance how long you spend working, sleeping and enjoying your free time, so you don’t regret spending too much or too little time on each segment.

The length of the entire day, 24 hours, is split into 3 segments of 8 hours: one for working, one for sleeping and one for free time. 

I use the rule of 8 as a default, as it’s easy to remember and stick with. The trick here is to focus more on the quality of work done than the quantity of time.  In other words, prioritise what needs to be done and make sure that you are focused; that means moving your mind away from the free time and sleep yet to come.

The great thing about this method is that you can adjust it around your needs without breaking the 8 hour limit for a segment. For example, let’s say you feel really lazy one morning and end up oversleeping (we can all relate right?) You wake up and start working at 11 from which you carry on working up to 3, then from 4 to 6, then from 8 to 10. Now you might be wondering where the hours in between went. Well, they could have been spent as free time if you can’t do all 8 hours in one chunk. See, the rule of 8 can be a lifesaver too!

The rule of 8 can also be adjusted if one of your segments start to overlap another. For example, you might have to spend 9 hours working, 7 hours of free time and 8 hours of sleep. In effect, this makes the technique less successful, as you find yourself sacrificing one segment for the other plus it’s not so much the rule of 8 anymore. Therefore, it’s best to avoid this as much as you can, but seeing as though you still managed to save your routine, you might as well pat yourself on the back. 🙂 

You might think 8 hours is too much time to work, but mixing up different ways of studying makes the experience less boring. You could change between learning information, to testing yourself, to making flashcards, to doing a practice paper. It all depends on how you like it, but don’t multi-task, as this can harm your productivity and health!

So there it is the 8-8-8 rule. I hope this has been of some help, especially if you struggle to juggle up each part of the day. It should help you become more organised in the way you work and also more attentive towards your lifestyle and habits. Most importantly, be happy and look forward to getting work done just as much as you do with having free time: it is how you choose to treat your work segment that makes the other segments more meaningful.

How do you construct your routine using the rule of 8? What impact did it have on your routine? Comment down below!