Making something intentional makes a huge difference for you, in terms of psychological traction. Here’s an example: If you have stereotypical laziness and procrastination, you’re watching something from Redbox or Netflix, and you’re surfing the web. You’re cruising Pinterest, a little Facebook here and there, getting lost on Mashable or whatever it may be. If it’s the traditional wasting of time, you get no psychological benefit from that. In fact, it makes you grumpier. It makes you feel lazy. It probably validates any negative beliefs you have about yourself. So, it’s bad juju; don’t do that.
But here’s the thing: The results totally flip on their head when you do it differently!
And this is how you do that. You simply make it intentional; put it on your calendar. You tell yourself, “This is an hour, two hours, whatever it is, thirty minutes that I have for myself, and this is what I’m doing. I’m watching an entire episode of Friends, and nobody can stop me.” And because it is intentional, scheduled, or whatever, you get huge psychological benefit from it! It’s a reprieve from the day’s stress, it is a time of rejuvenation, and it is a treat. And that’s all by simply making it intentional, rather than something that just happened while you were avoiding the normal day-to-day grind.
So, pro tip of the day: Make it intentional, and the world is your oyster!