How to Use Your Time More Intentionally

Putting More “Life” into Work-Life

Originally, this article was called “How to Intentionally Blow Off Your 9-5.” While the message remains the same, it’s been appropriately renamed to avoid any miscommunication to any co-worker readers. My time off was approved, thank you.

Anyway, this is not about quitting your job nor is it about going off the grid and ditching all responsibility. This article is namely for 4 types of people:

1) you want to spend your time more intentionally  

2) you’re looking for ways to take PTO without necessarily traveling or spending big bucks

3) you’re looking for new things to do in Los Angeles

4) you want to expand your interests and hobbies

I took a week off from my job due to months of burnout (seriously, raging flames) that resulted in me feeling distressed and loathing work. However, the secret to managing burnout is learning to take time off regularly and moreover, how to use that time off intentionally. An old boss of mine said, “taking a week off every few months will leave you more refreshed than taking 1-2 days off every few weeks.” So true Tim.

While I acknowledge not every job offers generous flexibility, here are some ideas on how to use your free time - whenever it is - to do things that are fulfilling and energizing no matter where you are.

120 Hours of Setting Intentions

If you know me, you know I love a good theme. I spent the next 5 days strongly focusing on important themes that make me feel centered. It’s never too late to ask yourself who you are or want to be as you change throughout life. Who am I as a creative? What are things I don’t know I’m good at yet? Who am I when my health is at its best?

Self-care, Creativity, Nature, Learning, and Exploration are all things I wanted to make time for again. With some brainstorming, I’m confident you can find some themes that resonate with you. You only need a day, a weekend, or a week to do this!

Day 1: Self Care

Self care comes in all forms, and thus there may be overlap in self care and the rest of the days I talk about. I chose to focus on my health, but regardless of what your self care looks like, focus words to consider are unwind, recharge, rest, nourishment, wellbeing, and relaxation.

• Exercise: Although I’ve tried pilates before, it’s not a part of my everyday strength training routine. To make today’s workout exciting, I switched it up and took a pilates class at Avenir LA Pilates.

• Massages: I got a deep tissue massage at The Now to help my body unwind. If you work a desk job, there’s nothing better than someone undoing those kinks in your neck.

• Facials: I got my first facial ever at Heyday, which won “Best Facial” in Cosmopolitan’s Beauty Award in 2024. It’s 50 minutes of pampering your skin with a multi-step treatment that’ll leave you refreshed and better informed about your skin health. An at-home routine with quality products will benefit you the same!

• Mindfulness: Practicing mindfulness in everything you do is a great skill to have. Mindful eating, walking, breathing. Walking can also be mindful - ditch your phone and focus on your body, the environment around you, and your steps. Walks are also scientifically proven to release “feel good” endorphins, so don’t skip that hot girl walk. Hit the Silverlake or Hollywood Reservoir to make your walk more exciting.

• Nourishment: Time to indulge a little. Maybe it’s getting your favorite sweet treat, ordering a good ass meal, or cooking at home. I got my favorite meal at Forage, which has healthy and delicious meals that fill me up and make me feel good. The Fattoush Salad and Lemon Ricotta Pancakes are my fave!

• Other ideas include going to therapy, yoga, meditation, reading for pleasure, or catching up on sleep.

The 4 quadrants of self-care are mind, body, heart, and spirit. As long as your activities help fulfill any of these categories, you’re doing it right.

Day 2: Creativity 

Creativity isn’t necessarily tied to literal art forms, but I chose to engage with more common forms of art to stimulate my “right brain.” Key words for this day are imagination, inspiration, design, crafts, and expression.

• Vision Boarding: Bring out the art supplies or start a virtual board on Pinterest or Canvas to imagine what you can add to your life. While you may add dreams or aspirations, be mindful not to get caught up in unproductive thoughts of what you don’t have. The boards should help you find ways to enrich your life through healthy additions and realistic goals. Vision boards are scientifically proven to ‘prime,’ which essentially means to expose you to stimuli and influence how you act towards whatever comes next - manifestation is real.

• Art Museums: If you need some help getting started, why not start by getting inspired by what exists around you already? I visited The Broad and Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in DTLA, both fantastic art museums that helped motivate me during my next activity…

• Arts & Crafts: Every artist has their niche and forte - maybe it’s photography, drawing, or pottery. Choose your own adventure and get your hands dirty! Note that these activities often take more time to go into focus mode, so set off a good chunk of time for this.

• Creative writing: There are countless ways to turn our words into something creative, imaginative, and even worth sharing. If whipping up something from scratch sounds tough, try journaling. Even writing about your day can help strengthen your creativity. I believe in AP English it was called “vomit writing.” Even this blog began as a mere vomit draft.

• Make Music: Listening to songs and creating music are both fantastic ways to boost your mood and feel creative. I spent time collaborating with some fellow musicians to turn some old songs into “full production” songs - can’t wait to share it soon.

• Other activities to consider are photography, knitting or crocheting, graphic design, coloring books, pottery, glass blowing, and attending open mic nights or poetry slams.

Despite the artistic nature of my activities, most of what’s discussed in this entire article helps generate creativity: exposure to new environments, meditating, trying new hobbies, and getting inspired by people around you. What’s most important is you’re actively trying to push yourself to think outside the box. My recent read, The Creative Way of Thinking by Rick Ruben, is a great read for more insight on topics like this.

Day 3: Nature

This day is arguably one of the utmost important ones if you’re usually glued to your desk for your 9-5. Time to unplug. Focus words are outdoors, scenery, mother nature, landscape, and environment. Nature is a restorative force for us and provides a break from tedious mundane life. It allows us to feel connected to something greater than oneself. My boyfriend and I took an overnight trip to Santa Barbara to get out of the city. We love you LA, but the air quality is short of fresh.

• Hiking: We hiked the Hot Springs Canyon Trailhead in Santa Barbara which was an awesome hike for people who prefer rocky steps over dirt trails. There are tons of hot springs dotting the trails and beautiful views of the ocean. It’s SB’s most popular hike! Other great hikes in LA area are the Firebreak Trail to Griffith Observatory and Fern Dell Nature Trail.

• Beaches: We took a stroll around the beaches of Santa Barbara, strolling on the pier and enjoying the calming waves. Butterfly Beach is a popular one if you’re in town!

• House Plants: I went to the Sunset Nursery, a huge plant store with various plants that need homes. Filling your spaces with more plants will bring you closer to nature and give you a green thumb. Hellooo feng shui.

• Stargazing: Once we returned to LA, we stargazed at Elysian Park at night. Angel’s Point has a beautiful view of DTLA and the rest of Los Angeles. The park is expansive and always has visitors at all times of the day. I’d recommend going in the afternoon too!

• Other Ideas include catching a sunset, camping, visiting national parks, taking a night drive to a scenic spot, gardening, or having a picnic at the park.

Don’t skip out on nature day. A little Vitamin D and outdoor time is good for everyone’s health.

Day 4: Exploration

This section should be its own article, because there are countless places to explore in LA. Atwater Village, Silverlake, Los Feliz, Echo Park, and DTLA are all great neighborhoods you can check out. This day is open-ended depending on what city you live in, so I'll keep this part LA-focused. Focus words for this day are hidden gems, adventure, exposure, curiosity, and discovery.

• Coffee Shops: Discovering new favorites means taking a break from your local favorites. Peek at your maps and look for new cafes to feed your caffeine addiction. Coming soon: “Top 10 LA Cafes” article.

  • Maru Coffee: This place always has a line out the door! Go to their cafes in DTLA or Los Feliz or their Espresso Bar in Beverly Hills. It’s a must try for matcha lovers and you should always ask for a side of their house cream!

  • File Systems Coffee: Unique cafe in Hollywood that has old Apple computers everywhere! It’s a laid back spot with friendly service, and the computers and plants make for some cool decor.

• Eclectic Shops: Meandering through all the tiny corners and blocks of your neighborhood will open your eyes to new and lasting favorites!

• Time Travel Mart in Echo Park: It’s a convenience store for time travelers! I truly don’t know how to describe this place but it’s unique. Where else do you see fridges with dinosaur eggs for sale?

• The Last Bookstore in DTLA: Crazy tunnels made of books and endless shelves of vinyls, tapes, and books - seriously a crazy bookstore. You could get lost in the labyrinth of the written word.

• Super Sweet Coffee & Tattoos: This unique shop is decorated in a vintage botanist style with green and pink decor. It’s the cutest tattoo shop I’ve ever seen and female-owned!

• Stories Bookstore: Hmm the smell of books. I love the atmosphere of a good bookstore. I’d passed by Stories in Echo Park multiple times and finally got to stop inside. It’s my new favorite and has a cozy little cafe in the back where people read and hang out.

• Food & Farmers Markets: Any market with ‘vendors’ will suffice for this. I chose to skip my local Silverlake Farmer’s Market for a few new favorites this time.

  • Grand Central Market in DTLA: This landmark spot was founded in 1917 and is a great spot for brews, pastries, vegan cookies, empanadas, and a variety of colorful cuisines. Take the historic “Angel’s Flight” railway fro $1 to get there! 

  • Echo Park Farmer’s Market: Open from 3-7 pm every Friday, this farmer’s market sells primarily food. You can find vendors selling bao buns, empanadas, tamales, and specialty items like tea and honey,

• Restaurants & Bars: What’s the hype about that place? If you’ve had a restaurant saved for some time or seen lines outside that cafe around the corner, now’s the time to make time. I’ve got an LA food blog coming out separately, but this week’s new Beli addition was Courage Bagels and La Fe Bar.

  • Courage Bagels: Always has a crazy line, especially on the weekend! Go in the morning on weekday to avoid waiting more than 30 minutes. The bagels were crispy, crunchy, and reasonably priced!

  • La Fe Bar: New favorite bar in Echo Park! La Fe has a cozy green sofa that wraps around half the room, floral wallpaper, and antique picture frames decorating the bar. It opens at 10 am most days, doubling as a cafe to have a coffee and work at.

• Dispensary Dream: Okay, so I’m not a big weed person (it puts me straight to sleep). But while I don’t enjoy it as much as the average Californian, The Woods in WeHo is objectively a very cool spot. Behind those bougie shop counters, there’s an outdoor courtyard with a full operating cafe, “think tanks” to reserve or work in, and clean bongs available for use at your table. It’s a popular work place for productive puffing. Not to mention, Woody Harrelson owns it!

• Other places to explore are thrift shops, home decor stores, vinyl stores, bakeries, and flower shops.

Your day of exploring should uncover lots of cool and new spots. This is evidently easier to do if you haven’t lived in the same place forever, but even so, try to venture deeper or learn about other people’s favorites.

Day 5: Learning

Is it just me, or does everyone reach that post-grad 2 year point where they just want to find new hobbies?

While we are learning all the time, Day 5 is about exploring new skills that require some kind of technique. Time to swap out your fictional stories for some non-fiction books, classes, or tutorial videos. Benefits that come with expanding our skillset include intellectual stimulation, improving career prospects, personal growth, and boosting mental health through sense of accomplishment. Focus words here are practice, technique, insightful, challenge, and knowledge.

• Baking: While cooking new recipes is always fun, I wanted to learn some niche or foundational kitchen skills, such as how to bake bread, pickle vegetables, break down a chicken, or make kombucha. This week, I started with baking focaccia bread from scratch - the house smelled incredible.

• Meditation: I took a mediation class at the Kadampa Meditation Center in Los Feliz. You can definitely do this at home too, but as a restless and distracted individual, I wanted to start with proper guidance in the right environment. It is 100% a skill that requires lots of mental focus.

• Pole Fitness: Better known as pole dancing, this activity was as experimental as it was unique. Although this specific class wasn’t as workout-focused as I hoped (funny story for another time), it was a completely new experience that boosted my arm strength and confidence in new ways. Talk about putting yourself out there.

• Other opportunities include learning new language, slack-lining, acting, coding, dancing, graphic design, or web design.

Taking classes is an excellent means of learning about topics in more depth, but at-home learning is also very accessible. For example, my boyfriend and I learned to break down a whole chicken while making dinner last week. Fundamental and practical. Googling “classes near me” can spark infinite ideas. A knife skills for cooking class, sewing class, and music production class are all things I hope to try soon. I think it’s just in my nature to try all sorts of random things, even when I’m not good at them. You just have to know when to laugh at yourself. Exposure is everything.

Conclusion

By using this week for introspection and self-actualization, I was able to re-enter my every day life with more energy, fulfillment, and motivation. This structured and intentional week allowed me to broaden my horizons and hone in on what I needed, internally and externally. If you don’t like planning, note that you don’t need to plan an extensive schedule, especially if it's stressful. Start small. A day or weekend could be all you need.

You don’t need to travel far and wide to enjoy some well-deserved personal time. Immerse yourself in the things you love and the things you have yet to be acquainted with. There’s no better time to begin than the present.

Sincerely,

Hannah

Other theme ideas for you to get inspired:

• Feng Shui: The space you live in can significantly impact your energy and productivity. Feng Shui day is a day to focus on reinventing your space. Redecorate, declutter, clean, and invest in interior decorating the vibe that makes you happy.

• Connection & Community: Connect with friends, strangers, and family in social settings. Volunteer and partake in community service, hangout with new and old friends, host a dinner party, join a club, or join a sports league. Although I haven’t tried it yet, I’ve heard of platforms like Timeleft that organize cool events like anonymous group dinners in LA where you can meet new people.

• Love & Relationships: Perhaps this is a day to focus on time with your significant other. You can go on a fun trip or try new activities that require teamwork. You can focus on what’s going well or nurture areas of the relationship that need more care.

• Do Nothing: Some of you may need a day to simply “veg out.” No plans, no schedule, no expectations - just pajamas and a day of lounging in the house.

• Career: While this week off from your job should be work-free, two exceptions are if you want to explore new professions and do some self discovery and the second is if you want to improve a skill related to your job that you just don’t have time to do unless you set it aside.