Coaching practices for Work Life Balance Regret
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Work Life Balance Regret, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I keep telling myself family comes first, but when I actually look at where my hours went this week it’s almost all work
- I look at the big shape of my life
- A few big regrets keep circling back because they never got an ending
- I’m good at my job and on top of my commitments, and yet I’m quietly miserable
- I tell myself my family comes first, but when I look at where my week actually went it was almost all work, and I can’t square the story I tell with where the hours really landed.
Practices that may help
- Audit work hours against your stated priorities
Compare how you actually spend your time this week against what you say matters most.
The Regret of the Dying - Audit whether you are living your life or someone else’s
Identify the places where your choices reflect others’ expectations rather than your own values.
The Regret of the Dying - Revisit and reconcile your significant regrets
Name your regrets explicitly and work through them toward acceptance — not suppression or rumination.
Life Review and Reminiscence Therapy - Apply the matrix at the role level, not just the task level
Audit which of your entire roles or commitments are Q1, Q2, Q3, or Q4 — not just individual tasks.
The Eisenhower Life Audit - Name which burners are actually on
Honestly assess how much fuel each of the four domains is receiving right now.
Four Burners Theory: Making Peace With Trade-Offs - Choose time over money on purpose
When trade-offs arise, weight time more heavily than the extra dollars.
Time Affluence, Made Practical - Weigh action regret against inaction regret
Over a lifetime, the regrets that linger are usually the things you didn’t do.
The Regret-Minimization Framework - Keep a spending regret log to calibrate future decisions
Record which purchases you regret most — a short log reveals your personal creep pattern faster than any budget.
Lifestyle Creep: Why Raises Don’t Make You Richer - Use a 15-minute end-of-day planning buffer to close the day’s loops
Before leaving work, take 15 minutes to list tomorrow’s priorities and explicitly close today’s open loops.
The Zeigarnik Effect: How Unfinished Tasks Occupy Your Mind - Schedule deliberate investment in your important friendships
Identify your most important friendships and make a concrete plan to reach out this week — not when conditions are easier.
The Regret of the Dying
Related concerns
- Regrets Of Omission
Over a lifetime, the regrets that linger are usually the things you didn’t do.
Weigh action regret against inaction regret
- Bronnie Ware Five Regrets
Bronnie Ware, an Australian palliative care nurse, documented the most common regrets of dying patients in her book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. The themes — especially living others’ expectations, working too hard, suppressing feelings, and neglecting friendships — are consistent with broader research on regret and well-being. The evidence is qualitative and self-reported; treat it as wisdom data, not clinical data.
- Feeling Expression Ware Regret
Name one feeling you regularly suppress and find one safe context to express it this week.
Practice expressing feelings you habitually suppress
- How To Get Over Regret Of Leaving A Job
Compare how you actually spend your time this week against what you say matters most.
Audit work hours against your stated priorities
- How To Live Without Regret
Identify the places where your choices reflect others’ expectations rather than your own values.
Audit whether you are living your life or someone else’s
- Life Review Regrets
Name your regrets explicitly and work through them toward acceptance — not suppression or rumination.
Revisit and reconcile your significant regrets
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.