True / False
Retirees have no problems with time management.
How did you answer this question?
Let’s analyze the statement.
The answer must be True, right? How can anyone who is retired have problems with time management? As a retiree, I now have more free time than I have ever had in all of the 63 years of my life. I can set my own schedule every day. I don’t have anyone else’s expectations to meet on a daily basis. I am the master of my castle; the captain of my ship. How could there be any problems with time management?
In all truthfulness, for me, the answer to this question is False. This issue of time management has been an unexpected challenge for me as a retiree. With all this new-found free time, suddenly the immediate priorities are no longer as clear as they were when I was working 40 + hours per week. In my prior life as a professional working woman, if the only time I had free to do yard work was on the weekend, that’s when I did it. When the time was limited, the choices for how to spend it were easier and more obvious. I am still in awe of myself when I remember how much I used to accomplish on one day of a weekend when I was working and had young children. In one Saturday I would get up early, go to the grocery store; return home by 10 a.m. to take my boys to a soccer game; return home again and prepare lunch for everyone; work in the yard or do laundry in the afternoon; cook dinner and maybe even go out with a group of friends for a few hours in the evening. Sundays were full of church, Sunday School, family dinner, taking the boys to a park or a museum, preparing lesson plans and grading papers.
Heck, these days, I’m lucky if I am even up and dressed by 10:00 a.m. especially now that the weather is turning colder and the temptation to stay in my warm, cozy bed is so hard to resist. It’s very easy to get drawn into the momentary pleasures of my day to day existence and to prolong the time I spend on them. It’s equally easy to put off tasks that may be on my daily checklist. (Wait till I show you my checklist—remember I said I am a type A personality?) After all, there are no deadlines to meet; no one other than myself cares if this or that job gets completed or not. In fact, isn’t this one of the rewards of retirement? Why am I even worrying about this? As I said, who cares if certain jobs do or do not get done?
If you had asked me about time management one year ago, I would have told you that you were crazy for even asking the question. Time management was not an issue for me because, as I happily told my friends when they asked me what I was planning to do in my retirement, my sole purpose in retirement was to do “whatever I damn well please.” I went blissfully from one activity to the next. I had rid my life of all the “shoulds” and was only concerning myself with what felt right for the moment. Now that I am entering the second year of my retirement, surprisingly I find that I am getting a little frustrated with myself because I have so much trouble making up my mind about how to spend the day. Some days there are multiple things that I want to do but I can’t decide which one to do first. And then there have been a few evenings when I have asked myself, What have you accomplished today? What about that novel that you said you were going to write when you retired? I am reminded that the greatest gift of retirement is time and that the gift of time is precious. What do I have to show for my time?
Let me give you an example. I am looking at my calendar for October. Instead of nice clean empty squares for the 31 days of this month, my calendar is riddled with activities such as the following: foot doctor appointment for me; mammogram for me; flu shot and shingles shot for me; grooming appointment and rabies shot for my dog; lunch date with a friend; Elder Study classes or curriculum meetings; book study groups; exercise classes; walking dates with friends; a digital photography class; wine-tasting with Sister City; visiting my niece and her new baby; serving dinner at the Homeless Shelter; and appointments for minor home repairs. It’s like an average of one event per day.
Retirees have no problems with time management.
How did you answer this question?
Let’s analyze the statement.
The answer must be True, right? How can anyone who is retired have problems with time management? As a retiree, I now have more free time than I have ever had in all of the 63 years of my life. I can set my own schedule every day. I don’t have anyone else’s expectations to meet on a daily basis. I am the master of my castle; the captain of my ship. How could there be any problems with time management?
In all truthfulness, for me, the answer to this question is False. This issue of time management has been an unexpected challenge for me as a retiree. With all this new-found free time, suddenly the immediate priorities are no longer as clear as they were when I was working 40 + hours per week. In my prior life as a professional working woman, if the only time I had free to do yard work was on the weekend, that’s when I did it. When the time was limited, the choices for how to spend it were easier and more obvious. I am still in awe of myself when I remember how much I used to accomplish on one day of a weekend when I was working and had young children. In one Saturday I would get up early, go to the grocery store; return home by 10 a.m. to take my boys to a soccer game; return home again and prepare lunch for everyone; work in the yard or do laundry in the afternoon; cook dinner and maybe even go out with a group of friends for a few hours in the evening. Sundays were full of church, Sunday School, family dinner, taking the boys to a park or a museum, preparing lesson plans and grading papers.
Heck, these days, I’m lucky if I am even up and dressed by 10:00 a.m. especially now that the weather is turning colder and the temptation to stay in my warm, cozy bed is so hard to resist. It’s very easy to get drawn into the momentary pleasures of my day to day existence and to prolong the time I spend on them. It’s equally easy to put off tasks that may be on my daily checklist. (Wait till I show you my checklist—remember I said I am a type A personality?) After all, there are no deadlines to meet; no one other than myself cares if this or that job gets completed or not. In fact, isn’t this one of the rewards of retirement? Why am I even worrying about this? As I said, who cares if certain jobs do or do not get done?
If you had asked me about time management one year ago, I would have told you that you were crazy for even asking the question. Time management was not an issue for me because, as I happily told my friends when they asked me what I was planning to do in my retirement, my sole purpose in retirement was to do “whatever I damn well please.” I went blissfully from one activity to the next. I had rid my life of all the “shoulds” and was only concerning myself with what felt right for the moment. Now that I am entering the second year of my retirement, surprisingly I find that I am getting a little frustrated with myself because I have so much trouble making up my mind about how to spend the day. Some days there are multiple things that I want to do but I can’t decide which one to do first. And then there have been a few evenings when I have asked myself, What have you accomplished today? What about that novel that you said you were going to write when you retired? I am reminded that the greatest gift of retirement is time and that the gift of time is precious. What do I have to show for my time?
Let me give you an example. I am looking at my calendar for October. Instead of nice clean empty squares for the 31 days of this month, my calendar is riddled with activities such as the following: foot doctor appointment for me; mammogram for me; flu shot and shingles shot for me; grooming appointment and rabies shot for my dog; lunch date with a friend; Elder Study classes or curriculum meetings; book study groups; exercise classes; walking dates with friends; a digital photography class; wine-tasting with Sister City; visiting my niece and her new baby; serving dinner at the Homeless Shelter; and appointments for minor home repairs. It’s like an average of one event per day.
This is all good stuff; these are activities I signed up for and that I can cancel if I don’t want to attend on any given day. Many of these are activities that I would not have had time for prior to my retirement. But where is that long span of uninterrupted time when I can seriously tackle starting to write a chapter for my book? Am I “nickleing and diming” myself instead of saving up precious energy and time for the big, important things?
Any suggestions out there on time management? What does your calendar look like?
Any suggestions out there on time management? What does your calendar look like?
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