Lack of Intention is Squandering Nearly Half Your Life

We use intention when we plan our big vacations. But why is this just about the experience of a lifetime? Why not go about creating more experiences of a lifetime. On a regular basis. What it’s really about is creating a more purposeful life. We plan our workdays. We use scheduling tools and calendars. We’re intentional because it matters, right? Kind of need that job to go well so we can keep paying the bills. Just imagine if we went about creating our off-time with more intention. I know what you’re thinking, ‘but I work hard during the week and I just want to relax on the weekends?’.

First, why are we creating a life to just live for the weekend? More about that at another time. Stay with me here. How about if we scheduled our days on the weekend with intention as well? Just letting things happen and relaxing on the weekend is a certain way to wake up one day with regrets. We may ask ourselves where did the time go and how did we squander so much. Perhaps we’re even feeling this way right now. Questioning why we allow ourselves to waste away our precious time with a lack of intention and purpose.

Unfocused intention?

There’s a lot of talk about the?fallacy of the 40-hour workweek?and how the traditional model is no longer valid. There is certainly an element of truth there. Perhaps the traditional workweek is outdated. I can get on board with that. However, while we’re trying to break out of that, perhaps spending our non-working time more purposefully would be prudent. We always say someday. But that keeps it in the future. An arbitrary and nebulous time in the future that frankly, will never get here. Let’s be real, hopes and dreams are more often unrealized than not. Simply beginning is more than most can bear to do. Getting paralyzed with inaction is a reality for far too many folks.?

If you work a standard job on the traditional 40-hour model, how long are your weekends? Nope, 48 hours is an incorrect answer. In fact, from 5PM on Friday to 9AM on Monday, there are 64 hours. That means if you sleep 8 hours each night, there is a full 40 waking hours in your two-day weekend. Is that a little shocking? I cannot say I even realized there were that many hours in the weekend until I just completed the calculation. Now, if we’re not spending those hours with intention, we’re wasting the same amount of time each week that we spend working. So, while we lament the time we work in our corporate jobs and long for freedom, we erode the time spent in freedom with a lack of purpose.?

Intentional planning in application?

This model can be applied to our free time, no matter how simple or extensive the plan. It can be as simple as a weekend spent at home or as extensive as a flyaway weekend getaway. It’s all about efficiency and adequate time spent planning. Here’s an example: pack and prepare on Thursday night after work. Then head to the airport directly from work. Arrive on location Friday night. Spend all day Saturday and Sunday until afternoon doing what you’ve planned. Then back to the airport on Sunday evening to head home. Most of two days spent doing something you love and having novel experiences. Not wasting half of Saturday just getting on location. Intentional planning in action.?

Believe me, I’ve squandered some weekends. Doing nothing on Friday night. Doing housework on Saturday. Sleeping in and preparing for the next week on Sunday. What a waste! Intentional planning of our time allows us to maximize our experiences while we work towards that freedom for all our time. I’m not talking about a loose plan. I’m talking about a plan with enough specificity to drive creation of new experiences. Or even repeating some of the old experiences.?

Time doing nothing can be intentional

Now if you’re thinking ‘but I really just need some down time to recover’, you can do that with intentional planning too. We’re not tied to specificity. Our time off is just that: our time off. Sometimes we need time to just truly relax to maintain our mental health. I get that and I’ve certainly done it before. We can still create a plan so as not to just drift through our time and wonder where it went. One of our time blocks on the calendar can be scheduled for ‘relaxing’. That also allows us to really relax without feeling guilty for not doing something else.?

The point is, wasting our time away while hating the captivity of our careers is worthless. There are 168 hours in a week. If we sleep 8 hours per night (which I advocate for, quality sleep is vital to our health) that’s 56 hours. Then we work 40 hours. I know, many of us work longer hours but stay with me. That leaves us with 72 hours of our own time, commutes notwithstanding. Now are you asking yourself ‘where does it all go’, the answer lies in this discussion.?Lack of intention and purpose wastes 43% of your life during your working years.?

What I’m Doing

I’ve experimented with this in the past to create a weekend with more intention. Literally opening my calendar and adding each thing in so there was no space between. Sure, it was a little tedious. Perhaps it removed some of the spontaneity. However, I still planned for spontaneity by allowing open blocks of time during my plan. It doesn’t have to be more specific than I’m comfortable with. The key point is that I can visualize my plan and it is less susceptible to waste. That small amount of intentionality allows me to create a more purposeful weekend and return to work on Monday feeling more fulfilled. I’m now adding this into my weekly routine to minimize regret on how I spend my time.?