Balancing quality and quantity is a choice which can benefit your health, sanity, and overall sense of wellbeing in your life as a whole. As a culture, we get pushed a bit of both. Yes, high quality matters, but more is better, right? I’m not talking about consumerism or advertising here, but how we approach our life as a whole, and especially how we approach choices we make for our health. 

For instance, sleep is very important to our health. And I wholeheartedly believe in getting the proper number of hours of sleep as being imperative to overall wellness. But just laying in bed for many hours and having a fitful night’s sleep isn’t as beneficial as getting some good, solid, deep REM sleep. Setting aside the time for a good night’s sleep sets the quantity, but then preparing for sleep by winding down, not eating for a few hours before sleeping, going to sleep at a consistent time, staying away from screens before bed, decreasing ambient light in the bedroom, and being sure to have gotten exercise in during the day and spent some time de-stressing in other ways will also improve the quality of sleep. Quality matters too. Just focusing on the number of hours of sleep isn’t good enough. It’s a start, but focusing on quality helps set intentional ways of improving that sleep and maximizing its benefits. 

When we look at food, there is the difference between counting calories and grams of fat, carbohydrates, and protein and looking at the nutritional profiles of the actual foods we are eating. You may need 2000 calories a day, but how you reach that number makes a big difference in what you introduce into your body. A potato will give you 110 calories, but a serving of French fries will give you 365 calories. Do you want that extra 255 calories to be industrial seed oils and perhaps a dash of sugar, or would you prefer it to be extra virgin olive oil? How you reach certain quantities can be changed if you’re choosing for quality. And over the long run, this makes a difference.

Often I see people who want to add more exercise, meditation, or other beneficial practices into their daily lives but they just don’t have the time needed. Focusing on quality in this scenario makes a big difference. If you can spend 10 minutes meditating with focus, it can be much more beneficial to you than 30-60 minutes of distracted meditation. If you can do 15 minutes of focused exercise, it can be more beneficial than puttering around at the gym for an hour. You can make minutes in the day more meaningful by utilizing them to their fullest. With this in mind, it is easier to begin a healthy practice if you only have 10-20 minutes for it. Focus on the quality of the time you have, not the quantity and you can decrease your stress about not having enough time in the day and increase your ability to experiment with new healthy habits.