It’s just after 5 p.m., and it has been a day. You get back home, and there it is, staring you down from across the room: your abandoned passion project.  

The skill you swore you would teach yourself, the short-lived phase, or the hobby you haven’t done in months—all have been pushed to the side, and they’re the last thing you want to do right now. 

Surely, there must be some way to find the time for both productive needs and passion projects. How can you get the best of both worlds? 

Want vs Need
So what is the difference between passion and productivity?  

The answer is simple: productivity is for something you need to do, and passion is for something you want to do. 

It is important to have both in your life. 

The Balancing Act 

Managing both our needs and wants is much easier said than done.  

In Work-Passion-Life Balance: Finding Fulfillment Through Zones Of Efficiency, Matthew Kolinski notes that “life is more hectic and overstuffed than it’s ever been in human history.” It is more important than ever to make time for ourselves and our passions among all of life’s busyness. 

Kolinski suggests separating work (career, school, professions), life (friendships, family, relationships, social realm), and passion (personal desires, goals, and aspirations) into separate “zones of efficiency.” 

Figure out how much time and energy you are putting into each zone daily. Meet yourself where you are and discover how you can work in each zone equally, not overusing or neglecting any of these equally important aspects of the human experience. 

Finding Your Passion 

How To Know What You Want  

Think about the future life that you want. Once you find out what that entails, you will discover what is truly important to you now. George Kinder, founder of The Kinder Institute of Life Planning, developed the Kinder Questions, a three-question self-assessment to figure out what you want.  

Answering these questions could lead to you cutting out things that don’t serve what you’re working toward. Similarly, this can free up time for you to pursue things that do. 

Setting SMART Goals 

Even though it is important to separate work from life, bringing a framework into your personal life can help it thrive. 

Corporate Finance Institute notes that the SMART goals structure pushes “you further, gives you a sense of direction, and helps you organize and reach your goals,” bringing those passion projects to equal importance as “productive” to-do list items. 

Cardinal, Know Thyself 

Passion projects are vital to a healthy life not only because they provide balance and variety in the grand scheme of things, but also because they preserve self-identity.  

A busy schedule can cause you to wear many labels, from student to employee to athlete. It can be easy to confuse these labels for your actual identity, but that is not the case. 

 What is underneath the labels is who you are. Exploring your passions and acting on them outside of things you must do is vital to being your fullest and truest self. 

Best of Both Worlds 

Passion is just as important as productivity. It’s not a battle between the two, but a partnership.  

When you can implement balance, you’ll get home from a day of accomplishing your needs and feel ready to invest in your wants.