Dreams → Intentions → Reality

Notice the process of forming intentions

I’m doing online timeboxing/intention sessions for businesses. I’ve recently run 60 sessions for Microsoft, AstraZeneca, UBS and CERN. If you’re interested for your org, let me know by just replying to this email.

---

TLDR: Timeboxing transforms our passive thoughts and intentions into concrete action by scheduling them in our calendar, simply and easily.
Word count: 326
Read time: 2 mins

Thoughts just occur. We don't do anything, at least not consciously, to bring them into existence. Some of those thoughts are useless and we naturally disregard them. But some of them are valuable and we'd like to make something of them. Those become our dreams, wishes, hopes and aspirations.

This is still a pretty passive stage. We're only saying with these, “Wouldn't it be nice if…”. We're not yet exercising our agency, we're not yet being intentional.

But we do as and when we turn these dreams, wishes, hopes and aspirations into intentions. At that point, we're saying to ourselves that we're going to do a thing, we're going to make a change to the world. Such as:

• Take a 15-minute walk at lunch.

• Read a news article in a foreign language this and every week.

• Cook a healthy meal at home this evening.

• Spend 20 minutes decluttering the cupboard.

• Meditate for 10 minutes before bedtime tonight.

• Learn five new words every day.

• Attend a community event this month.

• Be in touch with our neighbour about the fence.

Forming an intention is an important milestone on the path to action. Take a moment to recognize this shift when it happens, so you can make it happen more, and when you choose to.

Timeboxing then takes the baton and turns the intention into a plan in a calendar, which gets done when the slot comes up. So the planning and doing come for free with timeboxing. All it costs is the few seconds it takes to add an entry to your calendar—the ubiquitous facility we all already use daily.

For example, your intention to declutter the kitchen cupboard transforms into an explicit timebox: ‘Wednesday, 7:30-8pm: declutter kitchen cupboard.’ When Wednesday evening arrives, your calendar reminds you, and what was once an idle thought, a wish, then becomes an intention, and finally the reality of a neat, tidy, satisfaction-inducing kitchen cupboard.

And just like that—dreams and wishes can come true.

Marc

---

Links you may like

7 days of Timeboxing (the free email micro-course)
Timeboxing, the book (US)
Timeboxing, the book (UK)
Timeboxing, el libro (Español)
Connect with me on LinkedIn