Intentional Living: 13 Simple Ways to Be Intentional Every Day

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Are you tired of living your life on autopilot and looking for simple ways to be intentional in your every day life?

Intentional living is a way of thinking about your life that’s purposeful and deliberate. You make intentional choices and conscious decisions to make sure that what you do each day enables you to focus on what really matters to you.

Many people live their lives habitually – doing things without enjoying them. It’s hard for them to experience feelings of joy, happiness, and accomplishment because they are not intentional with their time, energy, space, or money. They feel like they are just going through the motions of life and not really headed anywhere. Some feel stuck in their lives – always wishing they had more time and energy to spend their days doing things they always wanted to do.

Intentional living can help and change your life for the better – by giving it meanings and purpose that are in harmony with your current values and priorities.

What Is Intentional Living?

Intentional living means understanding your core values and priorities, and then actively living your life in line with those values and priorities. Living intentionally requires you to slow down, reflect on self, and being mindful of your choices and actions. And the first step is to accept that life is made up of conscious choices and decisions we make.

To live intentionally, you need to focus on the things that matter to you the most and that really add value to your life. These are the things that give life more meanings and bring you long-term pleasures. It also requires you to understand why you do what you do, and why you don’t do things that you don’t do. You need to let go of the things and people that distract you from your goals and complicate your life.

What Does It Mean To Be Intentional:

Being intentional means you focus your time and energy on your strengths, and the good, positive things in your life, and don’t let fear or negativity hold you back. It means choosing to take action based on the things that are important to you. When you are living with intention, you consciously and deliberately choose to create the life you want, rather than just having a life, or other people dictate your feelings and actions with their expectations.

Here are some real-life examples of what intentional living means to my family and me:

We are mindful of how we spend our money. We pay ourselves first by saving a certain amount each month before we spend money for anything else. My family and I don’t go shopping for entertainment, and we have fun together as a family doing countless other things that don’t cost us money. We buy what we need, and spend money on meaningful pursuits that give us long-term pleasure.
I make sure we eat home-made, healthy food, and have our dinner together every night.
I count my blessings every day, and take time to thank God for those. Practicing gratitude helps me nurture a positive mindset and be content with what I have or who I am. I maintain a gratitude list which I go through often with my family.

There are many other ways to be intentional in your every day life, and below you will find some useful suggestions to help you with that. Pick and choose what suits you and your family, and give them a try!

Here are 13 simple ways to be more intentional every day so you can enjoy your life in a meaningful way:

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1. Get Enough Sleep:

Be intentional about getting enough sleep every day. We all know, more or less, the importance of getting enough sleep. Yet most of us are guilty of depriving ourselves of a good night’s sleep. Lack of sleep leads to depression, obesity, weight- gain, diabetes, high blood pressure, and memory loss. And it also causes irritation and impatience with others.

Even a little bit of sleep deprivation can alter your mood and cognitive abilities. When you are sleep-deprived, you feel tired, sluggish, and unproductive. Lack of sleep also ages your skin and makes it look unhealthy. So, make it a habit to go to bed early, and get a sound sleep for 7/8 hours. Your body and mind – both will thank you for that.

2. Declutter and Organize Your Home:

This one is very important if you truly want to live intentionally. A cluttered, disorganized home takes a lot of your time for cleaning, maintaining, and organizing stuff. So, be intentional about what you keep in your home and what you get rid of. Decluttering has a profound impact on your mind and your spirit. When you remove the excess, you can focus more on the essential. By decluttering, you will make space and time for the things that matter most. Keep the things that spark joy in you and add value to your life, and let the unwanted and unloved ones go.

By reducing the amount of clutter in your home, you will improve the quality of your life significantly. When you have less stuff in your home, you have less stuff requiring your time, energy, and attention to manage it all.

If you need extra tips on how to declutter and improve your life, you can refer to this wonderful book, Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff by Dana K. White, for help.

Once you are done with decluttering and reclaiming your precious living spaces, take some time to organize the things you have now. Find a right place for everything you are going to use. As soon as you are finished using something, put it back where it belongs. That way, everything will be where it’s supposed to be when you need it.

Remember – decluttering comes before organization. If you declutter enough, you won’t need to organize much. A neat, organized home helps you create a calm, peaceful home environment where you can relax and concentrate on your most important life-goals.

3. Be Mindful of Your Media Consumption and Eliminate Time Wasters:

Find ways to free up time for the the important and meaningful stuff in your day. That means eliminating the things that are not useful, cutting back on time wasters, limiting your screen time, and making room for what you want to do. We waste so much of our precious time by staring down at a screen for hours. You probably don’t even realize how much time you are losing on it. Make a conscious decision to use social media less. Social media can be a great way to stay in touch with people, but it can also be wasting our valuable time each day.

Spending too much time on social media can even lead to low self-esteem and unhappiness by comparing yourself to others and trying to keep up with the Joneses.

4. Reassess Your Priorities and Simplify Your Goals:

Many of us have tons of goals in life that keep us busy with things that are not truly important and meaningful. Also, it’s a lot harder to accomplish things when you have more goals than what you can manage to achieve. That can complicate your life, and make you feel overwhelmed, frustrated, and unhappy. Take a few minutes every day to think about your values and priorities. Then ask yourself how your schedule, your spending, and even your home reflect this vision.

Go through your priority list, remove those that don’t go with your current values and principles, and only focus on those goals that are truly important. By reducing the number of goals that you are striving to accomplish, you will improve your focus and your success rate that will also increase your happiness.

Understand that everything being a priority actually means nothing is a priority. By simplifying your goals, you will simplify your life and live intentionally.

5. Slow Down:

In order to simplify your life and live intentionally, you have to learn to slow down and become unbusy. You can’t, despite your best efforts, be in constant motion and be at your best. You need to know when to pause or slow things down, take peaceful breaks if needed, and do things mindfully. If you are always rushing to get your chores done, you will end up feeling emotionally drained, mentally stressed out, and physically exhausted.

Know that it’s okay to be not busy all the time. Simplify your life by identifying things that cause stress and aim to minimize or eliminate them. By slowing down, you can pay more attention to what you do, enjoy things more, and be present. That is very much the essence of living life intentionally. When you are in the moment, you are directly in the flow of your own life, no past, no future, just now. Remember, the way we spend our days, that’s the way we spend our lives.

6. Focus on Your Important Relationships:

The quality of your relationships affects the quality of your life. Spend more time with those who truly matter and be intentional about strengthening your relationships with them. Once you get rid of the things and people that are unnecessary and don’t add value to your life, you will have extra time to spend with your loved ones.

Spending time with those who you love and care for will increase your happiness and improve your quality of living. We get so busy in the day to day grind and we start to lose sight of the things that are most important to us! Take time to focus on your most important relationships that you value, and make your life better and more enjoyable.

7. Do Things That Bring You Joy:

One of the simplest ways to be intentional every day is to do something that brings us pure joy. It’s a powerful way to add value to our life but we often overlook this. Make room in your days to do things that spark joy and make you happy. Learn something new and exciting. Do something that you have always wanted to do. Find a new hobby. Explore new things that you love and enjoy. That will work as a stress-reliever and anti-depressant, and will give new meaning to your life.

8. Move Your Body:

When you exercise, your brain releases endorphins, adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin. These are chemicals that work behind the scenes to make you feel happy. So, get some body movement every day, preferably in the morning.

It doesn’t have to be complicated or professionally trained. It can be running, walking, dancing, cycling, swimming, playing basketball, gardening in the yard, lawn mowing, vacuuming and mopping the floor, or even furniture rearranging. Just make sure you get your 20-30 minutes of workout daily. Staying active has infinite physical and mental benefits that can’t be ignored.

9. Spend Your Money Wisely:

Intentional living means you be mindful of money and develop healthy, lasting financial habits. For that you need to be intentional with your purchases and what you accumulate in your home.

Don’t buy anything if you know it’s something unnecessary or you can do without. Live simply by shopping less, and only go shopping when you genuinely need to, not just to pass time. In order to simplify your life and live intentionally, you have to shop intentionally, too. Unnecessary shopping steals your time, your money, and your energy that can otherwise be spent on meaningful things that add value to your life.

10. Focus On Your Own Life:

Don’t compare yourself to others and make yourself feel miserable. Everyone is dealing with their own challenges, struggles, and setbacks. Comparisons are unhealthy and detrimental to your own self-esteem. Instead of comparing yourself to others, focus your energy on being the very best version of yourself. Try to be better than what you were yesterday.

Be intentional in creating a great life for yourself. Focus all your energy and attention on your own goals and dreams. Do what is required to achieve them.

Related post: 13 Ways You Are Complicating Your Life

11. Structure Your Day and Establish Daily Routines:

A great way to be intentional about your life is to create daily routines to get your important tasks done on time without rushing or stressing over things. Get some regular routines in place and stick to them, and your home will function so much better without you running out of food, clean clothes, or having to do a whole day deep cleaning session.

Be intentional about how you structure your day. Develop a solid and consistent morning and evening routine. You will be able to start and end your day knowing what you need to do, how and when you are going to do it, and how much you have accomplished.

12. Make Self-care a Priority:

If you want to improve your life and have a happier and healthier mind and body, you need to be intentional about finding time to show some love and care to your own self. We are always busy. Busy taking care of others but too busy to take time out to practice self-care. We easily put ourselves to the bottom of the priority list and put others first. Instead, be intentional about creating some time for yourself and you will be a happier and stronger person because of it.

Self-care is not a luxury, rather a pure necessity for your overall well-being. Self-care means intentionally doing things to take care of your mind, body, and soul by engaging in activities that promote your well-being, uplift your spirit, and reduce stress. Doing so enhances your ability to enjoy your life and live intentionally, on your own terms.

13. Count Your Blessings and Express Gratitude Every Day:

Gratitude is all about shifting your focus from what your life lacks to all the things you currently have – big and small. Gratitude makes people more resilient, improves physical, emotional and mental health, and reduces stress. Research has shown the link between living with gratitude and multiple health benefits including better sleep, less stress, improved relationships, and increased happiness.

Intentional living requires you to focus on all the good things in your life, count all your blessings, and express gratitude for those. Make your own gratitude list and read them often. Every day find at least 3 reasons/things to be thankful for. Just by doing that consistently, you will notice a significant increase in your happiness and overall well-being.