The Fickle Art of Living with Intent

I can’t believe we’re already almost seven weeks into 2025. It feels like the last few weeks have just flown by.

It’s not a new feeling. I often find myself wondering where time has gone.

Life is rushing past – and I worry I’m missing it.

As most of you know, more than anything else, Life Done Differently has always been about living with intent. It was never (just) about living a nomadic life and challenging societal norms. Most importantly, it’s been being present. Being mindful of how I spend my time and live my life. Making decisions based on my true values and priorities – not based on what everyone else is doing or what society tells me I should be doing.

You would think that after over seven years, I’d have living with intent figured out. Well, I don’t.

Turns out that living with intent is a fickle art that requires constant work – especially day-to-day.

I think I’m pretty good at making big decisions with intent. These days, I’m very in tune with who I am, what I value and what brings me happiness. When it comes to making big decisions, I find it easy enough to tune into that and make it the main decision-making criteria. That’s not to say I don’t get distracted sometimes.

Late last year, I seriously considered buying a house in South Brighton. I enjoy living here, and it felt like the natural next step. But after some quiet contemplation over the holidays, I realised it’s not what I truly want from life. So even though I sometimes feel the pull to do the “normal” and “expected” thing, I always connect back with who I truly am before making any actual decisions.

In short, as far as the big picture goes, I seem to be living with intent. The problem is the day-to-day.

I’ve had a busy start to the year. Normally, January is a quiet month for me work-wise, and things only really start to pick up again in mid-February. This year was not like that at all. I’ve been super busy at work since the first day back on the 6th of January. It’s great to have work and to start the year strong, but it’s also made it hard to be present.

My days have felt very monotonous lately. I get up, walk up the beach to meet my swimming group, jump into the ocean, walk back, read and journal while I have coffee, make breakfast, start work by 9am, work till lunch, have a break (which I too often spend doom scrolling or doing other mindless activities), work some more, maybe go for another walk or a bike ride or do some stretching, make dinner, read or watch TV, go to bed.

That’s pretty much been the rhythm for the past seven weeks, and I feel like I’ve been on auto-pilot for most of it.

One day blurs into another, and weeks fly past without me feeling like I’m present or making the most of life.

I try to be present. I set intentions in the morning. I even tried regular meditating. But all of it only ever lasts for a few minutes. Before I know it, I’m back on autopilot, rushing through my day. Most days, I can’t even really remember what intentions I set in the morning by the time lunch comes around.

In a way, this is exactly what I want for this year. As I mentioned in my last email update, I’ve started to plan a new big adventure (I’ll share more about it soon) – but I need to spend a year or two preparing and saving money to make it possible. So, the goal for this year is to work, earn and save!

But I would like to find a way to do that while still feeling like I’m living with intent!

I want to work a lot without constantly being on autopilot.

I thought regular mediation might be the answer, but I’ve come to realise that it might be part of the answer, but it won’t be enough on its own. Meditating is great, but I don’t feel like it helps me be more present throughout the day – at least not in the short term.

So, I’ve been looking for something different. Something that would reduce the time I spent on auto-pilot on busy work days and help me be more present.

As so often, I found the inspiration I needed in a book.

I’m currently reading Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport, and it’s made me rethink my relationship with technology – specifically, the role it plays in living on auto-pilot.

I started to think about how often I grab my phone out of pure habit, not because I actually NEED to. How often do I watch Netflix or the like without really paying attention? How much time do I spend scrolling mindlessly on my phone? How often do I turn to my phone to check or do ONE small thing, and before I know it, it’s 15 minutes later?

Social media is a big part of this. You might remember that I did a 30-say social media timeout last year, partly because I was questioning its value and role in my life. That timeout was valuable but didn’t produce much lasting change. Reading Cal Newport’s book made me wonder if I should have not stopped at just social media. If I think back to that timeout, what happened is that I replaced a lot of my social media time with other mindless phone time, like playing games or checking news apps ten times a day.

In Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport suggests doing what he calls a Digital Declutter.

It starts with a 30-day period of reducing technology use to an absolute minimum by allowing only absolutely essential use cases. After that, he recommends slowly re-introducing technology, but always with a clear idea of how that technology will add significant value to our lives and clear parameters around how (much) to use it.

This process really speaks to me. As much as I love the idea of doing a complete technology timeout for a few weeks, I’m heavily reliant on technology for work – and not working is not an option right now. Limiting myself to essential technologies only seems like a good compromise. Re-introducing them slowly, in alignment with my values, seems like an excellent way to use technology with intent, which hopefully results in living more intently day-to-day in general.

So, I’ve decided to start my Digital Declutter on the 1st of March.

Why not right away? Well, I could say that I have to prepare a few things (which is true), but the main reason is that I like starting things on the 1st of the month. What can I say? I’m that kind of person :)

But another benefit of not starting till the 1st of March is that it gives others a chance to join me.

So, if your life could also benefit from a Digital Declutter, I invite you to join me in March.

I plan to publish a blog post next week to share more details about how I approached the 30-day declutter, what I consider essential technologies, and why and what I plan to do with all my free time. In it, I will explain Cal Newport’s framework in more detail so you can apply it if you want to.

Don’t want to wait? Cal Newport explains the process in detail within the first 80 pages of his book, so you don’t have to read the whole thing in the next two weeks. There are also a couple of good YouTube videos that summarise what it’s all about:

1.         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG8m_V8YYuA

2.         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJdZ7kmA2QQ

If you’re planning to join me, let me know in the comments or via email!

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