‘A highly scheduled life doesn’t serve us’: has living ‘intentionally’ gone too far?

Carefully planning your routine can feel good in a chaotic world – but experts say we should ‘choose when to choose’

Social media is in its intentional era. On TikTok and Instagram, living intentionally means operating on the highest plane of existence: each moment is the product of heartfelt planning, part of the careful pursuit of a life flawlessly lived. Perhaps you intentionally spend half an hour after work decompressing, then put on your carefully curated playlist while you intentionally work out, intentionally choosing exercises that center your mind and body while also giving you huge forearms, before intentionally preparing dinner using locally sourced ingredients.

As Marie Solis wrote in the New York Times recently: “You can just do all of these things. Or you can do them ‘intentionally’.” The fear, it seems, is that a failure to act with purpose means letting life happen to you.