On this page, Denalivo Apps provides details on how to use the Life Balance app to truly improve the quality of life in all areas. The below content guides users through the usage of all app screens and features in the platform of questions and answers for quick search and filters.
Objectives of the Life Balance App
Life Balance is a free app designed by Denalivo Apps to improve the qualify of life with the following objectives.
- Encourage users to design and track daily activities of different life areas for a more balanced momentum in all life areas.
- Motivate people to target productive work and serene life.
- Help people escaping boredom and depression and ignite the hope of happiness.
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Sign-in Accounts
Why do I need a Google Account Sign-in?
By signing in with a Google account, users allow Life Balance (the app) to record their achievements and scores in Google Play Games servers. With a Google account sign-in, you will have full access to current and future online features. For instance, you can review their achievements and progress in Life Balance yourself. You can also improve the quality of life together with people on the leaderboards. Moreover, you can back up user data on Google Drive under the registered accounts, and synchronize user data for usage across multiple devices.
Can I use an Offline Account?
Yes. But by starting offline, user data will not be backed up and synchronized. You will not have access to any online features. However, you can link their offline accounts to a Google account anytime to utilize online features later.
How to link an offline account to a Google account?
After clicking on the Menu≡ icon on the Dashboard, the Google Sign-in button locates in the User Profile section above the navigation menu.
How do I protect my data with a Google Account Sign-in?
Please read the privacy policy for the app users for full information. In short, the app solely needs a Google Account sign-in to synchronize user data on the Google Drive of registered account and record achievements and scores on Google Play Games servers. Other than that,
- The app does not collect any extra user data including registered emails.
- The app will explicitly ask for user consents if user data are needed for better services.
Why do I see an error about failed linking to the registered game player?
The error message indicates that the user has previously linked to the named game player, but the linking is no longer valid. For the local account to be back online, the user is required to sign-in again using exactly the Google account associated with the provided game player.
The user can reinstall the app or clear data to start over with a fresh local account and link it to a new Google account.
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Life Balance Dashboard
Life Balance Dashboard captures the overall picture of how time is spread across life areas for the day. Also, the dashboard provides in-app reminders and access to daily Balance Quests and Tasks for quick actions on life balance improvement.
What is EP?
Effort Points (EP) is the basic representation of user effort toward life balance in the app. An EP is granted for every 10 minutes spent on a life activity. EP will be rewarded to users for other efforts of balancing through Balance Quests, Wrap-up, Reflection, and other life achievements.
What is Effort Level?
Effort Level remarks long-term efforts of users toward a balanced life. By conquering a new effort level, users can unlock more predesigned activities and app features.
Wheel of Life
The wheel of life is a well-known tool helping people to allot and track time in various life areas to seek the most balanced and significant life pattern for their own. Through eight life areas in the wheel, Life Balance encourages users to diversify their time across as many sectors as possible daily, weekly, and monthly to experience and explore their best lifestyles.
Balance Quests
Following the Balance Quest is the simplest but efficient way to improve the quality of life daily. The balance quests assign minimum daily tasks for each life area in terms of time and grants extra EP rewards upon fulfillment and integrity.
- Fulfillment: spend the required time on a specific life area
- Integrity: track real-time and complete a task after reaching the target time. The higher the effort level is, the more integrity rewards can be earned.
How balanced is balanced?
The app does not set fixed criteria to evaluate user balance. Instead, it sets minimum paths for users to follow and explore themselves. Users engage in the app to keep a persistent effort toward the goal of balance daily, and users themselves need to evaluate how balanced they are by the end of each day via Reflection to decide how much time to spend on each life area for the best outcome. In short, the app only provides backbones and means to improve the quality of life. Yet users are ultimately responsible to design their desired life.
Sleep Pattern
Sleep Pattern is open in the morning for users to log their information about their sleep of the prior night and receive gemstone and EP rewards. Statistics of sleep data can be reviewed for sleep enhancement in Weekly Reports
Reflection
Reflection should be the last activity of users before bedtime. Therefore, users are inspired to compose a daily journal by answering several self-reflective questions about their day for the following purposes:
- Recognize the outcome of the day
- Highlight the moments of happiness for appreciation
- Cope with any depression of the day once and move-on
- Conceive how to improve oneself and the day by 1 percent
- Reiterate through the ultimate meanings of life and evaluate the significance of the day toward it
Reflection is open in the evening with notification. In addition, users can review past journals in Weekly Reports.
How to earn gemstones and what are they for?
Gemstones are needed to design a new activity or modify a designed one. They are also the means to penalize users for the lack of integrity such as logging a past activity with inaccurate time. Users can earn gemstones daily by watching video ads and completing assigned tasks during their open time.
Will there be in-app purchases in this app?
No. With the hope of helping people to improve the quality of life and reach a more balanced life without anxiety or pressure, there are no in-app purchases in the app. In other words, all current and future features are open to all users.
How to give feedback?
We always learn and grow from feedback. Therefore, any feedback is welcome to improve the app. Users can give private feedback via Support & Feedback under the side navigation of the app or write a public review in the app store for the app. Thanks in advance for your precious comments and ideas.
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Tracked Activities
Tracked Activities screen displays the time spent on activities in all life areas for the day by default. Users can apply the following filters located in the header bar to narrow down activities.
- Life Areas: to visualize only activities of a specific life area
- Date Range: to change date/time range to display activities for the current week, month, and year
How to record time on an activity?
Launch the Quick List of designed activities through the Search🔍 & Start‣ icon in the header bar of Tracked Activities and search for the desired activity. Users can start‣ a pending activity for real-time tracking and complete once target reached, or log+ an estimated duration for an occurred activity.
When should users track an activity?
The tracking option helps users focus on the activity for the target duration, improves productivity, as well as prevents overwork. Users can track as many activities as needed and complete them before timeout to receive bonus EPs for their integrity.
Notice: For more accurate reminders on target and timeout of a pending activity, user devices should be plug-in or actively used; otherwise, reminders can be unexpectedly delayed due to battery saving modes of modern phones.
When should users log an activity?
If an activity occurred and users couldn’t track it in real-time, log an estimated duration as soon as possible for not losing its track. Users can record from five minutes to ten hours for an occurred activity at once.
How to edit or design a new activity?
The app pre-designs a list of common daily activities. However, there are high chances that these activities are not appropriate for all users. Users can launch the full view of designed activities from the side navigation, search, edit, or design a custom activity for their unique lifestyles.
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Designed Activities
Designed Activities screen displays a list of activities designed by the user and the app for all life areas by default. Through icons located in the header bar, users can
- Search for activities by keywords
- Design a new activity
- Filter designed activities by a specific life area
Users can edit duration and limit time for a custom-designed activity through the edit icon locating on the activity record in the list. The option is not allowed on predesigned activities.
How to unlock an activity displayed with a hidden name?
Via the help icon locating on the activity record, check what effort level is needed to unlock it.
Why are some activities displayed with an open lock icon?
They are activities recently unlocked in the current effort level. Thus, users are encouraged to give them a try.
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Track past behavior. Improve future life quality.
Weekly Reports
Weekly Reports screen summarizes and analyzes activities for a whole week. By default, users will be notified on Sunday afternoon to review the report of the last week. Users can check the current week’s progress in the same view but the analysis is only available for past weeks. Weekly Reports are accessible via side navigation.
Balance Tracker
Balance Tracker captures the result of Balance Quests in days, weeks, and months. Users can access Balance Tracker via side navigation. Users are highly recommended to spend minimal time for each life area on average for life balance.
Habit Tracker
Habit Tracker captures users’ behavior via their daily routines over the ranges of days, weeks, and months. The screen shows the top 20 recent and frequent activities with accumulated time against their expected duration for the particular day range.
Users should utilize Habit Tracker to monitor their daily habits (as well as weekly and monthly habits). If users need help to build a new life-changing habit, please consider Habit Builder with more motivation, discipline, and rewards toward the final achievement.
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Wrap-up: fastest action to improve the quality of life daily
Wrap-up encourages users to build the habits of
- Preparing for the next day by creating a TO-DO list at the end of each day
- Wrapping up at a specific afternoon time daily and move on to other life areas
Wrap-up is open in the late afternoon with notification. More related information can be found in the To-do Checklist section.
Why does the app encourage users to wrap-up daily?
Benefits of daily wrap-up were proven in the industry:
- People typically make lists right before they set out to complete tasks and goals.
- Creating a to-do list at night may be more time-efficient and reduce morning stress.
- A nightly list marks a definitive end to the day, resulting in a greater work-life balance.
How many to-do tasks should be prepared for wrap-up?
It depends on task load and lifestyle and varies on individuals. However, the app enforces limits on prepared and extended to-do tasks for productivity and less overwhelming.
Wrap-up starts with a minimum number of to-do tasks initially and increments for each newly achieved Effort Level. Refer to To-do Checklist for information about possible extra to-do items that can be extended during the day.
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To-do Checklist
The first thing to do after waking up in the morning and logging Sleep Patterns is checking the To-do Checklist. The To-do checklist of the day can be launched from the side navigation menu or from the Tracked Activities screen. In addition to all to-do tasks prepared in yesterday’s wrap-up, 5 extra tasks can be added and edited during the day. Meanwhile, during wrap-up time, unfinished tasks of the day will be rolled into wrap-up notes automatically.
Users can track progress of past To-do checklist in Weekly Reports.
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New Habits: Build New Habits to Improve the Quality of Life
New Habits Task starts the journey of life-changing. New Habits Task is accessible from the Dashboard to the New Habit Dashboard, Habit Design, and Habit Builder. In short, all these features and habit rules target one final purpose: to motivate users to build one good habit at a time.
New Habit Dashboard captures the overview of the habit-building journey. Users will see all habits designed within a year. If the user activates a new habit, the active habit displays on the top of the New Habit Dashboard. Besides summarized statistics for each habit, the New Habit Dashboard displays a quick behavior chart for the active and allows users to perform the required activity quickly.
Habit Builder launches upon clicking on an active or ended habit in the New Habit Dashboard. Habit Builder displays full information on the ongoing habit with statistics, progress, and daily behavior graph.
How do I build a new habit?
You can design a new habit by launching the New Habit Design from the add (+) floating button in the New Habit Dashboard. After assigning a unique name, the new habit will be auto-saved. You can initiate a cue habit and come back to fill out other details later.
What should I do with New Habits Task?
If you have an active habit and not yet taken an action for the day, the New Habits task will show an in-app reminder (via the familiar red dot) in the afternoon. Just follow the red dot to log or track the linked activity for the habit in the New Habit Dashboard.
What are habit statuses? How to promote a habit?
A new habit cannot be built in a day. Instead, it will be pushed through different status in the Life Balance app to reduce pressure. All users need to do is act daily to push it through the following statuses:
- Cue habit: auto-promoted once users assign it a name and life area
- Desired habit: auto-promoted once users complete designing the habit with a reason, outcome, and daily activity.
- Active habit: activated by users once they are ready to build the new habit. Once activated, the habit will be tracked daily with in-app reminders and rules until completion or termination.
- Formed habit: It takes 21 days to form a new habit. Once users practice the new habit for 21 days, they have the option to finish the habit. If the users finished the habit before reaching the next status, the habit ends with the Formed status.
- Complete habit: It takes 90-254 days to form a permanent habit. If the users continue working on the active habit until reaching 90 days, they can finish the habit any time with a status of Complete. The app will not track any habit beyond 254 days. Thus, the habit will end itself with the same status once reaching the max tracking day limit.
- Terminated habit: If users do not take action to form the habit, the app will terminate it according to habit tracking rules. However, users can always start the habit once they are ready and desire.
Why does the app sets limits on new habits?
Refer to one of the principles of the Life Balance app: divide-and-conquer for the quickest answer. Again, the app sets limits on new habits to ensure the users actively enhance their life quality with balance. Users can build only one life-changing habit at a time but can queue many desired habits. The limit of desired habits increments by effort level.
Keep in mind that you can track unlimited habits from your daily routines via Habit Tracker. The app recommends users to use New Habits and Habit Builder to build and track the most challenging habit.
Does it cost to build habits?
Users can design new habits without any cost. However, it costs gemstones to activate a habit for habit tracking. Thus, try your best to complete the habit to avoid wasting your gemstones. In addition to the bonus EP reward, the app will fully refund the gemstone cost once users achieve the permanent habit.
Are there any extra tips to keep me up with the new habit daily?
- The app highly recommends the users to join the leaderboard of Life-Changing Pioneers. There you can track your habit score together with people sharing the same goal. Do not forget to encourage other pioneers to claim your daily gemstone.
- Design each habit with significant reasons and outcomes before activating it. Whenever you linger, please go back to review your initial desire in the Habit Statement to rebuild enthusiasm.
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Habit Rules: Build & Track until Completion
In addition to assigning limits on active and desired habit queues, the app enforces rules on active habits. The ultimate goal of habit rules is to motivate users through an arduous process of forming the habit that clings and changes their life. Therefore, the app designates the following ruleset for habit builder with a balance between reward and penalty on daily basics and long-term.
Rule #1: Rewards for Daily Efforts to Improve the Quality of Life
Each habit is activated with an initial score of 100 EP. Users score +2 for the day with a hit: reaching the target time on the activity designed for the habit. Users receive the same score for either logging past activities or tracking the habit activity.
To motivate persistent effort, the app will grant bonus score for straight hit weeks as follows:
- +2 EP for the first straight hit week
- +4 EP for the second straight hit week
- +8 EP for the third straight hit week and later
Rule #2: Incremental Penalties for Procrastinators
The app abstains from pushing anxiety and pressure on users while building the new habit. Therefore, it applies a very trivial penalty when users miss performing on a random day. As soon as the users can avoid consecutive misses and maintain a positive habit score, they can gradually form the habit around their schedule. If the user takes action on the current habit for a specific day but does not reach the defined target, the day is still a miss but there is no applied penality.
- -1 EP for the first miss without any action
- -5 EP for the second straight miss without any action
- -25 EP for the third straight miss without any action
- -125 EP for the fourth straight miss without any action
- The habit will be terminated after 4 straight misses or reaching a non-positive habit score.
Rule #3: Huge Rewards for Life-Changing Victory
The app reserves great rewards for habit achievements: Newly Formed Habit and Permanent Habit. Recall that it takes 21 hit days to form a new habit. On the other hand, a permanent habit requires 90-254 days. Please check the rewards for each achievement before finishing a habit.
- Formed Habit Reward: granted when users end a newly formed habit. Users will receive an EP bonus that equals the last score of the ended habit.
- Permanent Habit Reward: granted when users end the habit after 90 days. Users will receive the following reward:
- a full refund of gemstones cost for habit activation
- bonus EP = 5 * last habit score
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Leaderboards: Improve the quality of life with people!
Leaderboards honor the pioneers in the efforts of improving life in different aspects. Being visible on the public leaderboard is the best way to motivate oneself and other pioneers effectively. Clearly, it is easier to grow in a group of people with the same goals. In terms of fun facts, the app rewards extra gemstones for the pioneers who score and encourage others daily.
Lastly, be proud and brave to see your score and rank among other pioneers. You are on the right track to improve the quality of life with positive people. Together we grow!
How to get my player name visible on the leaderboards?
- The pioneer must take a life-improving action required by the specific leaderboard.
- If you see a score and rank under your player name at the bottom of the screen but not among other pioneers, you need to change Game Activity Settings to Visible to Everyone.
Game Activity Setting change can be done via the short-cut in in-app Play Game Profile. Alternatively, you can change it directly via Google Play Games and follow their detailed guide.
How to access Play Games Profile in the app?
Click on the Menu≡ icon on the Dashboard to locate the User Profile on the top of the navigation menu. If the app was signed-in or linked with a Google account, the corresponding Google player profile image will display in the User Profile. Follow the player profile image to access Play Games Profile.
Leaderboard of Balance Effort Leaders
The leaderboard of Balance Effort Leaders honors the pioneers with top EP scores.
Life-Changing Pioneers
The leaderboard of Life-Changing Pioneers honors the pioneers with top habit building scores.