Whether it’s the weekend or an upcoming holiday break, a number of studies have shown that people who set personal goals to achieve during their time off — such as seeing friends, pursuing a hobby, or even organizing a closet — report being happier than those who don’t.

The reason this works is that it makes us more intentional about how we will spend our time away from work and not because it allows us to cross things off from yet another to-do list.

While setting goals for our time-off is important, that doesn’t mean we should treat those goals like a to-do list. We should be flexible.