Compound Activity: A Return to Integrated Living

Why chasing “two birds with one stone” may be the wisest form of alignment

We spend too much of modern work and life in silos. Work for money. Gym for the body. Therapy for our emotional well-being. Creativity is a side hustle, if at all. Everything has its designated purpose—and every activity has a scheduled time.

But what if this focused optimization doesn’t optimize life as a whole (if we can even “optimize life” to begin with)?

In today’s hyper-specialization and fragmented attention, we’ve lost touch with one of the most ancient yet common forms of life practice: compound activity.

What Is Compound Activity?

Compound activities are actions that integrate multiple types of well-being at once.¹ Rather than optimizing narrowly for one outcome (for example, physical strength), compound activities apply several outcomes simultaneously.

Think of:

• Exercising with friends — Physical + Social + Mental

• Walking meetings in the park — Occupational + Physical + Environmental + Social

• Volunteering at a community garden with your partner
  → Environmental + Social + Occupational + Creative

These activities may not, and are not intended to, produce optimized output in any single well-being area. But put together, they create compounding returns across several pillars of wellness.

The Pillars of Well-being

To clarify, here’s the list of the 7 pillars of well-being² that I believe are relevant:

• Physical – Health, strength, mobility

• Mental – Health, peace, resilience

• Social – Connection, belonging, intimacy

• Intellectual – Knowledge, learning, curiosity

• Creative – Expression, originality, imagination

• Environmental – Nature, surroundings, proximity

• Occupational – Meaningful work, livelihood, contribution

Most of us try to address these different pillars of well-being sequentially and separately, checking off boxes like a to-do list. But this way of managing well-being structurally leads to trade-offs, where optimizing one pillar of well-being comes at the expense of another.

Compound activities, by contrast, align rather than compete. They stack returns rather than split attention.

Why Alignment Matters More Than Optimization

Structural alignment of incentives can build and grow long-term well-being in a way that no set of temporary provisions of incentives can ever get. Alignment doesn’t chase the perfect gym routine or the most efficient productivity hack. It asks:

“How can I live in a way that naturally supports multiple forms of well-beings, without fragmenting myself?”

Compound activities aren’t also compromises. (I’m not big on half-hearted compromises anyway—but that’s a conversation for another time.) They’re intentional architecture. A way of aligning different layers of fundamental nature of being human.

Instead of chasing marginal benefit in isolated pillars at the cost of other pillars, we generate synergistic momentum—a flywheel of holistic well-being.

In successful startups I’ve worked with, many tend to engage more in compound activities, from simple drinks with colleagues to marathons or travels together with families. Things that don’t scale in the short run may give sustained growth in the long run.

The Way Forward

This isn’t about rigid schedules or squeezing more into our calendars (which continues to prove inefficient and ineffective at a scale that’s over one day). It’s about being intentional with what and how we live:

Choose activities that feel whole and touch upon several pillars at once (including and especially social).

In a world obsessed with optimization, maybe the wisest move is alignment.

Because when one action strengthens many parts of us, we’re not just being efficient—we’re becoming whole.

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That’s it for this week. If this resonated, share it with those who you would like to engage in a compound activity with (and read together while walking in a park). And if you haven’t yet, subscribe to keep exploring deep thoughts.

With love,

Koshu

1. I made up this term, using compound exercise and compound startup as references.

2. Some of us have fewer or more pillars. Other common ones include spiritual and financial. I’ve added these as part of other pillars, but I believe everyone should have their own definition of well-being & revisit it when needed.