Stop Wasting Time. Be More Intentional with your life.

I think about death all the time.

And while I’m not overly afraid of death – just moderately afraid 😉 – I do have a fear of dying at the end of an unfulfilling life. A fear not having been intentional with my time.

A lot of us share this fear of wasting our lives away.

But instead of getting caught up in this existential dread (ironically losing more of our precious time to the rumination), let’s work on spending our time the way we want to.

Doing what we love (which I wrote about here).

Let’s focus on being more intentional with our lives.

100 Blocks a Day

I recently came across an old Wait But Why blog post called 100 Blocks a Day. (I love the Wait But Why blog. Tim Urban is one of my favorite writers.)

Tim explains that we have about 1,000 waking minutes in each day (assuming you sleep seven to eight hours a night).

You can imagine this as going into each day with 100 10-minute blocks.

You can even imagine it as a 2 dimensional grid: 10 x 10 squares representing your 10 minute time blocks.

Now the question is: How are you using your 100 blocks?

The next question is: How do you want to be using your 100 blocks?

With 8 hours of my day spent at work (480 minutes), that’s 48 of my blocks right there. 52 if you count the commute. (More if I spend more time at the office than an even 8 hours.)

Then there are my blocks for eating, hygiene, house cleaning, and general life maintenance. Let’s say that’s about 12 blocks.

I have a daughter and a dog, so they get plenty of blocks too. I’ll guess that’s another 14 blocks.

Then I have open blocks that I use for errands, emails/texts/calls, and miscellaneous things that need to get done. That varies but I’ll round it to 6 blocks.

I spend some blocks with my partner after our daughter goes to bed, which is where I’ll include spending time on my phone, reading and watching videos. That’s about 6 blocks.

Then I have a few open blocks that I like to spend on journaling and working on this blog. And that’s about another 6 blocks.

That all adds up to 96, not 100, because I try to sleep at least 8 hours a night so that math leaves me with 96 blocks a day. And my labels above are guesses, always subject to change. But overall it’s a helpful exercise to see how my time breaks down and evaluate how I do want to spend my time.

My biggest discrepancy with how I’m actually spending my time and how I want to be spending my time is, of course, work. I don’t want to work. Not at the job that I have, at least. I’d happily spend those 48 – 52 blocks on this blog instead.

So what can I do to spend my time more in the way that I want to spend it?

First I can swap out the time that I’m doing things that aren’t so important – like watching videos and scrolling aimlessly on my phone – for things that will move me closer to what I do care about – like working on this blog so that one day I can earn money for myself and not work for someone else!

I only have a limited amount of time in each day. This is true for all of us. So I want to get smart about how I use my time. I want to be more intentional with my time.

That means that if I want to play games on my Nintendo Switch for an hour, I can! If it’s something that I am intentionally choosing, it’s a win.

But if I lose an hour watching makeup tutorials and house tours on YouTube that I just can’t seem to turn off, that’s not being intentional. That’s me spending my time carelessly.

I choose to be intentional with my 100 blocks a day.

Ideal Week Exercise

Instead of a single day, you can also think about how you spend your time as framed by a week.

(A week contains about 112 waking hours, assuming you sleep 8 hours a night.)

I like Ali Abdaal’s Ideal Week exercise where he suggests identifying what your ideal week looks like, then planning blocks of time in your schedule for these ideal week activities to actually take place. Though your actual week might not go exactly as you planned on paper, it’s still helpful to know what you would like your ideal schedule to look like so you can actively move closer to that being your reality.

Watch the video here:

I particularly like his point around the 12:16 mark where he talks about framing things as a choice. I’m choosing to make time for [X]; I’m choosing not to make time for [Y]. You might also phrase it as, [X] is not a priority for me right now, with the implication that you will make time for it when it does become a priority.

I like how this way of thinking gives you agency over your time.

Fun fact, Dua Lipa is extremely regimented about scheduling absolutely every little thing into her calendar. I first read about this in Vogue but saw her talk about it again in this interview below.

She schedules everything from work to getting ready to showering and watching tv shows.

To be clear, I’m nothing like this. But I love this for her and how it helps her have a healthy relationship with time. Adhering strictly to her schedule is a tool that works wonders for her, allowing her to do her best work and feel great about how her time is spent. That’s really what I’m aiming for but with techniques that will work for me.

The End of Life Thought Experiment

I first heard of this from Carrie Green on the She Means Business podcast but she cites Michael Gerber for this idea in his book The E-Myth Revisited (still on my TBR list…)

Imagine you’re in a room full of people. Everyone’s seated, somber, facing forward.

What’s up front? A casket.

You walk up to it. You peer down into it.

It’s you. This is your funeral.

Your life is over… How was it spent?

Did you live the life you wanted to lead?

Did you have the experiences you wanted to have?

Think about this. Think about it seriously.

At the end of your life, how will you feel about the way you lived?

If you’re not happy with the way things are going now, it’s time to make a shift.

You can hear Carrie talk about this in a slightly different way here in this video podcast. She’s mentioned it a few times in other episodes and I totally get it. It’s a powerful way to zoom out and frame your life from a higher vantage point so you can really evaluate how you’re living.

What comes up for you when you imagine yourself on your own deathbed, looking back on it all? Are you living the life you want to live?

I have a daily reminder on my phone that pops up at 9pm, every night: MEMENTO MORI.

It means “Remember you will die.”

Our time is precious because ultimately we will die and no longer have time left in this physical form.

Stop wasting your time and be more intentional with your life.

Stop sitting on the sidelines of your life, waiting to get pulled into the game.

It’s time to stop procrastinating. It’s time to do the things you’ve always wanted.

To have more fun. To let yourself explore your curiosities. To work on making your dreams a reality.

I want this for you! I want you to feel fantastic about the day you just had, every night when your head hits your pillow!

Start today. Start now. This can be the way you live.

Use these exercises as a way to get more intentional with your time.

1. 100 Blocks a Day excercise
   • How are you spending your 100 blocks a day? Draw or print out Tim Urban’s 100 day chart from his blog post and fill it in with the way you are actually spending your time.
   • Now do the same thing over but fill in the 100 blocks with your ideal schedule.
   • How can you bridge the gap between these two versions of your day?
2. Ideal Week exercise
   • What does your ideal week look like? Plan blocks of time in your calendar for these ideal week activities to take place.
   • Try to stick to it! Though your actual week might not go exactly as planned on paper, it’s still a helpful reminder of your ideal schedule so you can actively move closer to that being your reality.
3. End of Life exercise
   • How will you look back on your life if you carry on living the way you are now?
   • Now imagine you’re on your deathbed looking back on your life, feeling absolutely fantastic about the life you lived. What kind of life was that? What experiences and accomplishments and memories do you want to have? Start actualizing these moments in your present life (and not for some far-off distant “some day.”)

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