By Leo Babauta

Most of the day, a lot of us don’t have anything we absolutely have to be doing, unless it’s a meeting or other appointment. We have a thousand choices, and so we can either jump around to a bunch of scattered things … or get caught in indecision and go to distraction.

How can we become more intentional?

One approach I like to use is what I think of as “intentional time.” This is time that has a single intention — like “workout time” or “mediation” or “writing hour.”

So, for example, you could have meditation when you first start your day, then writing hour. Later in the day, maybe you do a workout and then evening review.

You don’t have to fill every minute with “intentional time.” Just have some periods of intentional time during your day — the amount that helps you to be as intentional as you’d like to be.

Some examples of using intentional time:

• Focus session of 30 minutes to work on a specific task
• A session every Friday to work on finances and taxes
• A decluttering session every weekend
• Email-processing sessions of 20 minutes, three times a day
• Tidying-up sessions at the end of each day
• An evening review and reflection session

What kind of intentional sessions would help you?