How to avoid regretting the way you spend your free time

Decide early whether it will be a productive day or a chill day. Delaying the decision allows your autopilot to fill your time with mindless tasks and wastes time that could be spent with intention.

When I have free time, I find that oftentimes I neither get things ticked off my to-do list nor do I enjoy my time off by doing fun things. What usually happens is I sit in a void of indecisiveness, which my autopilot usually fills with YouTube, Instagram and Netflix…

These things are not negative things. I am not saying that I never want to watch YouTube videos, scroll on Instagram, or watch shows on Netflix. What I am saying is I don’t want to do these things mindlessly. When my autopilot takes control, it’s not even enjoyable. It’s often followed by feelings of guilt or regret of having ‘wasted time’ that could have been spent more intentionally.

I find that my autopilot kicks into gear when I’m procrastinating and avoiding a task that I don’t want to do. So my first tip is to work out the top thing you have been avoiding recently. Do that task first or put a time into your calendar when you are going to get that thing done. Once that’s out of the way, you just need to make a decision. How do you want to spend your time?

Is this going to be a chill day where you take it slow, enjoy a good breakfast, go for a nice walk, and take a hot bath?

Or is this going to be a day where you go for a run first thing in the morning, food prep meals for the week, and go for a coffee with a friend?

Or is it going to be a nice cozy day where you wear your pyjamas all day, bake cupcakes, watch movies on Netflix, and sort through old photos?

Or is it a day where you start ticking things off your to-do list, decluttering your cupboards, and cleaning out the fridge?

It actually doesn’t matter what you choose. Once you’ve chosen you can always change your decision. The important thing is that it’s a conscious decision and you spend your free time with intention.