As a talented procastinator who is occasionally lazy, this is not always the case for me. Many times I will spend my time doing things that make me happier in the short term but less satisfied in the long term. Articles like this do a good job of motivating me.
If that's what you want to do, that's what you should do.
But I'm not sure I'd recommend it. Imagine replacing "watch TV" with "gamble on horses" or "drink beer".
I kind of wish you'd said "What if I just want to chill and tend to my garden all day?" instead...
Look, I spent many years of my life quite literally telling people what they needed to do achieve their goals and trying to keep them from making short-term decisions that were quite obviously poor.
"Don't get back together with him, I guarantee within a month he'll leave you again and you'll be screwed." "I know you hate your job, but stop cussing at your boss until you find a new one!"
I have a pretty solid track record of being right. I used to judge people pretty harshly when they made obviously stupid life decisions that turned out to bite them in the ass, but I realized all it accomplished was making me incredibly cynical and untrusting towards anyone to do the "right" thing; whatever I happened to define as "right" that is. Now, I just live and let live. As long as someone's decision doesn't affect me I am not going to recommend against it. I'm also not going to make distinctions between "drinking all day" and "tending to a garden all day" -- they're both equally acceptable to me. Drinking all day while tending to a garden sounds like it could prove entertaining.
As you point out, life's too short to spend it being cynical and unhappy.
What if you just want to chill and watch TV all day?
I think the last thing people need is more advice on how to reduce fun in their lives and replace it with work, especially under the guise of "becoming successful." If you're 40 years old, have no job and live at home and you're completely happy with that, I would consider you a success.
The worst part about society is the fact that it creates arbitrary tiers where you must reach to be "better" or "more successful" or some other meaningless vapid term. Then it goes further, like this article, and defines "good" stuff you should do that will help you be "successful" or just "happier." I have no plans to follow most of these suggestions for all kinds of reasons... lets see... I hate writing thank-you notes, speaking, volunteering and spending a weekend with people I could be caught up with in an afternoon.
Do what makes you happy. Define your own success. Stop taking canned advice about life from people who know nothing about yours. Make your own damn decisions. I work a ton because I love it, not so I can die with more money or feel better than the next guy. Do whatever makes you feel good and the rest will work itself out.
Edit: Quick clarification. If this were an article about how to be more fit, rested, intelligent, funded and motivated for the sake of those things, then I would totally endorse it. But if you really wanted to be all those things, you'd be doing that stuff already because it's pretty damn obvious. You wouldn't be wasting those 120 minutes on stuff that wasn't making you happy; you'd replace that stuff with other stuff that made you happy. Pretty straight forward.