Intentional Days Vs Unintentional Days

I think it is useful for me to be explicit about the benefits of Intentional days over Unintentional days. To realise that it’s not chance that I feel good on Intentional days and less good on Unintentional days. Intentional days give huge bang for their buck, based upon just a few simple actions I take as part of my morning routine. Furthermore, those actions are extremely enjoyable in themselves and take very little effort. They release feelgood chemicals that positively impact every area of my life.

Intentional Days look like:

Wake between 6am and 7am

Meditate

Give Gratitude

Manifest

Go for a walk whilst listening to foreign language youTube

Breakfast

Journal

What a beautiful start to the day that is. By the time I’m ready to start work at 9am I feel at ease. My mind feels settled. I sometimes describe it as a tessellation of my mind. Like when you are doing well at Tetris and everything fits, there are no gaps. The completed lines can clear from my mind, leaving me with space to deal with new incoming information.

I have no desire to check my phone or social media. I am quite content to sit and eat my breakfast with no external distractions. I might simply sit in thought, or gaze out of the window.

My creativity is highly stimulated.

I effortlessly interact better with people. Smiles or conversations with strangers happen frequently. As someone who has spent most of their life going beneath the radar, I find this to be the most bizarre consequence of Intentional days. I can literally be unkempt, head down, hood up, in my own little world, and someone will give me a smile or make a jokey comment about something.

I drink sufficient water and take my supplements.

I work from 9am to 1pm without the distractions of youTube or music. Call it ‘Deep work’ if you like. Deep work becomes almost effortless. The combination of highly stimulated creativity and general feeling of ease makes it difficult not to do deep work.

The workday feels stimulating and productive.

I have a strange buzz when I go to bed. There is an excitement about going to bed mixed with an excitement about getting up in the morning and doing it all again.

Unintentional Days look like:

Wake up whenever (usually after 7.30am) and reach for my phone.

Get up and have breakfast whilst watching youTube.

Never really get free of youTube throughout the day. The thought of deep work feels borderline impossible.

Drink coffee. Drink minimal water throughout the day.

Forget to take my supplements.

Feel a sort of comfort feeling throughout the day, but at some point that nice feeling of comfort morphs into boredom and lethargy. After a long sequence of unintentional days the boredom and lethargy morph into moderate depression.

The workday feels both long and unproductive.

Minimal creativity.

I go about unnoticed. As an introvert I don’t see this as a problem, in fact I somewhat welcome it, but it’s an interesting point of comparison with how people interact with me on Intentional days.

I go to bed late because I stay up and watch TV/Netflix/youTube. When I finally get to bed, I feel almost nothing, neither particularly good nor particularly bad.

Why have Unintentional Days?

If Intentional days are so good, and Unintentional days are so bad, at least relatively bad, I’m sitting here wondering why I sometimes choose Unintentional days. Some of it comes down to comfort. Sometimes in that moment of waking I choose not to be disciplined. Maybe I haven’t slept well so decide to lie in.  Maybe I feel a bit under the weather. Intentional days beget Intentional Days. Unintentional days beget Unintentional days.

I think the best way for me to have consistent Intentional days is to not make the Intentional days too onerous. I used to pack these days with tasks that I’d struggle to fit in. I’d tick off the tasks on a spreadsheet. It might not be the most inspiring to make life feel like admin, or the shitty office job you hate. It might also help to allow a little ‘comfort’ in the evening. Maybe watch a movie, or a bit of youTube, or watch a game on TV. Relax before bed, ready to wake up for another amazing Intentional day.