The wheel of life is a circle divided into the areas of your life, and you give each area a score from one to ten. It gives you a quick picture, but that picture mostly shows how life feels today. And the area with the lowest score isn't always the one that's falling behind.
So ask two questions per area instead of one: how important is it to you, and how much of your week did it get? Where the gap is biggest, something is falling behind. A questionnaire psychologists use to measure how well people live by their values asks these same two questions. A 2026 study also found that when participants noticed they were living by something important, they felt more meaning afterward.
Pick a way to start:
- Once if you want to see where things stand now.
- Every week if you want to see what's slipping.
- Together if you share your life with someone.
A first step today: list the areas of your life, give each one two numbers (how important it is, how much of your week it got), and circle the one with the biggest gap.
If your mood stays low week after week, talk to a doctor or health professional.
The wheel of life is a circle divided into the areas of your life: health, relationships, work, learning and so on. You give each area a score from one to ten and draw a line between the points. Wherever the wheel goes flat, there's something worth looking at. It takes five minutes and gives you an overview that's hard to get any other way. But a single score per area mostly shows how life feels today, and the lowest score isn't always what's falling behind. This article shows you how to make the wheel, two questions that sharpen it, and three ways to use it. It's part of the guide to meaning in life, which is about living closer to what matters to you.
How to make the wheel of life
Draw a circle and divide it into seven slices, one for each area. A breakdown that works for most people is the one Atlas uses: Health & training, Mind (focus and thoughts), Relationships, Work & career, Learning & studies, Inner State and Meaning. Feel free to swap in or add something that weighs heavily in your life, like money, your home or parenting. The breakdown should be yours.
Then score each area, with the center of the circle as one and the edge as ten. Put a dot in each slice and draw a line between the dots. Then ask yourself: if this were a wheel, how would it roll?
A score is a snapshot
The wheel of life comes from the world of coaching. It's a tool for thinking, not a test that tells you what your life is like. Two things are worth knowing before you read it.
First, the score depends on the day. After a rough day at work, your job looks worse than it did two days ago, and after a lovely evening with friends, your relationships look better. One wheel shows how things stand right then. Only when you make it several times does a pattern show up.
Second, the lowest score isn't automatically the area that needs the most. An area can be low because you chose it to be. During exam season, training has to wait. With a newborn, your career has to wait. That isn't something falling behind. It's a decision. What's falling behind is something else: what matters to you but gets no room.
Two questions instead of one
So give each area two numbers.
- How important is this to me right now? From one to ten.
- How much of the past week did it get? Also from one to ten. What counts here is what you did, not what you meant to do.
These are the same two questions at the core of a questionnaire that Wilson and colleagues published in 2010 to measure how well people live by their values. You rate ten areas of life by how important they are and by how well you've lived by them over the past week. The questionnaire has since been used in many studies and translated into several languages.
The gap between the numbers says more than the numbers themselves. An area with a nine for importance and a three for time is the one falling behind. An area with a three for importance and a three for time is in balance, even if the wheel looks flat there. And an area with a two for importance and a nine for time deserves a question of its own: what is it taking time away from?
Noticing is what does the work
Why would two numbers a week change anything? A 2026 study offers a clue. Sarrión and colleagues at the University of Valencia had 114 adults in Spain answer short questions three times a day for ten days. Had they done something that mattered to them since the last check-in? Had they noticed it while they were doing it? And how did it feel?
In moments when participants had done something that mattered to them, they felt more joy and meaning. When they had also noticed that they were living by something important, their sense of meaning was higher at the next check-in. Effort that felt heavy, on the other hand, went along with more worry and low mood.
It's a small study, the participants were mostly women, and it shows associations, not that one thing causes the other. But it points in the same direction as the two questions. The numbers themselves aren't what make the difference. What matters is that you notice what you're actually doing. And a step that feels hard isn't better than one that feels easy.
Three ways to use the wheel
There's no right way. Choose based on what you want to know.
Once, to see where things stand. For you if you want a picture now and nothing more. Make the wheel with the two questions, circle the area with the biggest gap, and pick one thing to do for it this week. Leave the rest alone. First step: make the wheel tonight and write down that one thing.
Every week, to see what's slipping. For you if you want to see the pattern. Same wheel, same day, five minutes, Sunday evening for example. After a month, you'll see which area keeps sinking week after week without you noticing. That's usually where something is falling behind, not wherever this week's number happens to be lowest. First step: pick the day and set a reminder.
Together, to see each other. For you if you share your life with someone, and it's the most demanding way. You each make your own wheel and then compare. What surprises you is often not the numbers but what the other person thinks is important. Talk about the differences, not about whose wheel looks best. You can read why relationships wear thin when no one tends to them in the guide to relationships. First step: ask today whether you'd like to do it this weekend.
If Inner State stays low week after week, or no area feels important anymore, it may be about more than priorities. Read the guide to inner state and talk to a doctor or health professional. If you're having thoughts of not wanting to live, call your local emergency number.
A first step today: list the areas of your life, give each one two numbers (how important it is, how much of your week it got), and circle the one with the biggest gap.
This is the understanding and a first step. Atlas is where it becomes a habit. In Atlas, the seven areas of life form a life profile that draws itself: it fills in from what you actually do and log each week, not from how the day feels. Under Meaning you'll find The compass, where every evening you rate how close to your values you lived, as a suggestion you can make your own. Try Atlas free for 7 days, and cancel whenever you want.