The Wheel, on paperan instrument from The Bearings Framework, by Tame The Noise. Version wheel.v2.
Two numbers for eight parts of a life.
Fill this in with a pen and you will get the same finding the screen gives you. That is on purpose, and it is the test we hold every instrument in this method to.
How to fill it in
- Weight. You have 100 points. Spread them down the Weight column according to what you believe each part of a life deserves. Not where they are now. Where they belong. The column has to come to exactly 100, and the fact that it has to is the point of the exercise.
- Actual. The same 100 points, over the last month or so. Where your hours and your money actually landed. This column also comes to exactly 100.
- Gap. Weight minus Actual, one row at a time. Keep the minus signs.
- Satisfaction. Zero to 10 for each. Fill this in last. It does not go into any of the arithmetic and it never will. It is here so you can see for yourself whether a gap is one you mind.
| Domain | Where the Actual comes from | Weight | Actual | Gap | Satisfaction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WorkThe thing you are paid for, and what it takes from you to keep doing it. | Hours in your working week. | ||||
| MoneyWhat you have, what you owe, and how much of your attention it takes. | Hours spent managing it, plus fixed obligations as a share of what you spend. | ||||
| HealthThe body you will be living in for the rest of it. | Hours, plus health spending as a share of what you spend. | ||||
| HouseholdThe people you are responsible for and the roof over them. | Hours, plus dependent and housing costs. | ||||
| Friendship and communityThe people who are not family and not colleagues. | Hours spent with people who are neither family nor colleagues. | ||||
| CraftWhat you make or practice, whether or not anyone pays for it. | Hours on the thing itself, paid or not. | ||||
| PlaceWhere you live, and what living there costs you. | Housing and location costs as a share of what you spend. | ||||
| MeaningWhatever you would say it was all for, if someone made you answer. | Self reported. There is no hours or dollars figure for this one and we do not pretend otherwise. | ||||
| Both columns must come to exactly 100 | |||||
The arithmetic
- Gap
- Weight minus Actual, one row at a time. Keep the minus signs.
- The finding
- The largest positive gap on the sheet.
- A part of life that is not being lived
- A part you weighted 15 or more, getting at least 15 points less than that.
- An obligation nobody chose
- A part getting 20 or more, at least 15 points more than you weighted it.
No total, no average, no overall score.
There is nothing to add up at the bottom. A single number for a whole life is the thing this instrument exists instead of, and no version of it will ever produce one.
The two floors are not the same on purpose. Twelve and a half is the even split across eight, so fifteen is a part you pushed up. Nobody pushes Work up. Work is where the hours are whether you chose them or not, so the bar for calling an Actual imposed sits higher than the bar for calling a Weight unlived.
Reading it
A part of life that is not being lived. A part you weighted 15 or more, getting at least 15 points less than that. A gap this way round does not close by caring about it more. It closes when hours or money move into it, and they have to come from somewhere else on this same list.
An obligation nobody chose. A part getting 20 or more, at least 15 points more than you weighted it. A gap this way round closes one of two ways. Something goes, or you decide it does matter after all and say so out loud, which changes the weight rather than the hours.
If no gap on your sheet reaches either threshold, that is a real result. What you said matters and where your life went are close, and whatever you are deciding, this is not where it lives.