Auditing Your Life And Your Business
When things feel busy but progress feels unclear, the problem often isn’t effort — it’s direction. A life audit and a business audit give you space to step back, assess what’s actually working, and make intentional decisions about what comes next.
Rather than setting goals based on pressure, comparison, or habit, audits help you set goals based on evidence. They show you where to focus, what to adjust, and what to let go of.
What Is a Life Audit?
A life audit is a structured review of the key areas of your personal life. It’s not about judgement or perfection; it’s about clarity. By honestly assessing how different areas of your life are functioning, you can see where your energy is being well spent — and where it’s being drained.
Areas to Audit in Your Life
Start by reviewing the following areas and rating each one honestly, for example on a scale from 1 to 10:
Health and wellbeing: Physical health, mental health, sleep, energy levels, stress management
Relationships: Family, friendships, romantic relationships, boundaries, communication
Career and purpose: Fulfilment, growth, alignment with values, sense of direction
Finances: Income, savings, spending habits, financial security, money mindset
Time and routines: How your days are structured, work-life balance, habits
Personal growth: Learning, creativity, curiosity, personal development
Environment: Home, workspace, digital clutter, surroundings
Look not just at where things are “good” or “bad,” but at what feels sustainable versus what feels fragile.
What Is a Business Audit?
A business audit applies the same principle to your work or company. It’s a systematic review of how your business operates, where it performs well, and where inefficiencies or risks exist.
A business audit removes emotion from decision-making and replaces it with insight.
Areas to Audit in Your Business
Review each area honestly using real data wherever possible:
Revenue and profitability: Income streams, margins, recurring revenue, pricing
Clients or customers: Ideal clients, retention, satisfaction, problem areas
Marketing and visibility: Lead sources, content performance, conversion rates
Sales process: Enquiries, follow-ups, close rates, onboarding experience
Operations and systems: Tools, workflows, automation, documentation
Time allocation: Where your time goes versus where value is created
Team or support: Capacity, roles, outsourcing, communication
Cash flow: Expenses, forecasting, seasonal patterns
Risk and resilience: Dependencies, bottlenecks, scalability
This audit highlights not only what’s underperforming, but also what deserves more focus.
How to Interpret the Results
Once both audits are complete, look for patterns rather than isolated issues. Low scores in multiple areas often point to a single underlying problem, such as lack of boundaries, unclear priorities, or outdated systems.
Ask yourself:
What feels misaligned?
Where am I over-investing energy for minimal return?
What areas improve others when fixed?
The most powerful insights usually come from these overlaps.
Turning Audit Insights Into Goals
Audits are only useful if they lead to action. The key is translating insight into focused, realistic goals.
Step 1: Choose Priority Areas
You don’t need to fix everything at once. Choose one to three life priorities and one to three business priorities based on impact, urgency, and capacity.
Step 2: Define What “Better” Looks Like
Instead of vague goals like “improve health” or “grow the business,” define measurable outcomes:
“Walk three times a week and improve sleep consistency”
“Increase recurring revenue by 15%”
“Reduce admin time by five hours a week”
Clear definitions prevent overwhelm.
Step 3: Build Systems, Not Just Intentions
For each goal, identify small systems or habits that support it. For example:
A weekly planning session to improve time use
Monthly financial reviews to improve cash flow
Content batching to support marketing consistency
Systems make progress repeatable.
Step 4: Set Review Points
Schedule regular check-ins — monthly or quarterly — to review progress and adjust. Life and business change, and goals should adapt without being abandoned.
Why Audits Create Better Decisions
Life and business audits replace guesswork with awareness. They help you stop reacting and start choosing. Instead of chasing more, you focus on what matters.
When you set goals from audit insights, they’re grounded, aligned, and far more likely to stick — because they reflect your real circumstances, not an idealised version of them.
Using Audits as an Ongoing Practice
An audit isn’t a one-off exercise. Revisited annually — or during periods of change — it becomes a powerful tool for alignment and growth.
Clarity creates momentum. And momentum, built intentionally, changes everything.