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That video works for me… And will be me in about a year and a half… As of December 2025!
And I do not mean, sitting in a rocking chair on a porch for the rest of my life doing nothing. I mean, My time will be my own, and I won’t have any structured schedule forced me for the benefit of others.
Just curious.
So often some people speak of wanting/needing/preferring a set schedule in retirement...while others relish in having no commitments...
- How long have you been retired? What's your schedule?
Retired seven years ago, daily calendar is pretty full, except for Sunday afternoons and Fridays seem to have few activities, so those are free to do whatever catches my fancy.
- Do you prefer a set schedule, or do you relish NOT having time committed to anything you don't want to?
Various activities necessitate a set schedule, but I do set aside one day a week for "nothing". I purchase a calendar every year from Staples, one month a page upon which I write down all of my commitments. If I ever lose that calendar, my life would be over!
SLEEP:
-- Did your sleep schedule change? IF so, how?
Yes. Used to wake up early for work and retire around 10:00 or 10:30. Now I sleep until the dogs wake me up, or I have an early commitment
-- Did it shift back, so you're sleeping later? Longer?
No, and probably never will. Used to wake up at 4:15 on work days and with the sun otherwise.
-- How long did it take for that shift to occur?
Immediately upon retirement.
-- Are you sleeping the same number of hours, but the schedule of it shifted back or forward?
Don't know. Never quantified it. Nap about once a week, so must be getting less sleep.
SCHEDULE:
-- Are you/is your time more committed to activities/duties/responsibilities? OR less?
More committed. So much so that I often wonder how I had a life when I was in the working world.
-- How do you juggle those things?
Goes on the calendar. If the calendar is full any specific day, then nothing else gets added, or something gets cancelled.
-- How did you decide what to commit to and how much time you would commit to those things?
Just kind of happened. No conscious thought about what gets done and what doesn't. Of course, some things are more important, so they go on the calendar. Such as Sunday morning church. Nothing gets scheduled on a Sunday morning, unless it is something unusual or "special", such as Sea Cadet drill weekend.
My schedule is weather-dependent. If it’s nice, I always can find stuff outside to do. Today was nice so I was up at 7 and outside by 8. Worked for a few hours running the weedwacker twice (runs on battery so it has to recharge), sprayed for weeds a bit, did some hand trimming, etc. in at 11.
Lunch was pizza, nothing fancy. Allowed my food to digest and rested until 2 pm. Did a quick 10 mile bike ride.
Tonight, we had our monthly volunteer fire department meeting and training. We did water shuffle running three vehicles as we prepare for an attempt to lower our ISO rating. Big fun. Home at 8 pm, resting and relaxing.
Tomorrow will be more of the same. I’m redoing some drainage ditches and I’d like to get 10 ft completed. It requires me to remove the existing #57 rock, smoothing out the sides, laying landscape fabric, adding back the #57 following by a single layer of #1. I’ll use my little Kubota but, it’s a lot of manual labor.
Tomorrow night is gym night. We do a body pump class. I’m the oldest in the evening class but, there are plenty of older folks in the daytime class. I prefer evening and I’m in the very back so I have the best view of the little cutie girls. My wife is on the front row and she approves my location. lol. I’ve added muscle that I thought was gone and it feels so good!
Rain is in the forecast Friday so it’s like an off day. I want to take a run at organic chemistry just for the fun of it so I’ve located a free online class. I’ll explore that on Friday and update our finances.
There you go! A few typical days in my life. Boring ‘eh?!
My comment on the video shared above is there is "Fun" option.
For some reason, the vid jumbled fun like hobbies, games and entertainment into Hard Work which is wrong. Fun should stand on its own and if the survey had a choice for "Fun", it would be interesting how many would value "Fun". I know I would over the other choices in the survey mentioned given my age. It would be different if I was in my 20s, 30s -- my choices would be "Marriage" or family and "Hard Work" instead of "Fun".
Also, the survey did not have an option of "Doing Nothing" so it was self-defeating.
No schedule right now. Family priorities take priority for now.
I have plans once things simmer down - volunteering, (more) college courses, connecting with friends, and taking very good care of myself.
I have a routine. I wouldn't call it a schedule, because I feel free to break it whenever I want. But I do have a routine: coffee + reading/Youtube to jump start my brain ... walk in the park with my dog, feeding the squirrels ... [option] ... second walk with dog ... [option] ... lunch ... [option] ... nap ... coffee + Youtube or internet ... third walk with dog ... [option] ... dinner ... [option] ... fourth walk with dog ... [option] ... shut down electronics at 9 pm, then read for the rest of the night.
The "option" sections get filled with whatever I happen to be into at the time - home improvement projects, writing, reading on the internet, texting, attending a class, whatever.
I don't have a schedule. I was thinking yesterday that I might benefit from scheduling social activities for myself, to get myself out of the house more. I do a little bit of that - jot things down on the calendar. But when the time comes, I'll often just skip, because I don't feel like it. So it's a very loose sort of scheduling, nothing I hold myself to. I prefer to kind of make things up as I go along, heh. I like the freedom of that.
Sun- Church & Potluck afterwards. Grocery Shop at Health Food Store on the way home Tue- Community Center Organic Meal- $10 each= $25 for two meals. Usually meet up with friends Tue- 1x a month, Food Bank Volunteer Thu- 1x a month, volunteer for the Community Center Organic meal Fr-Sun- SLEEP IN UNTIL NOON. Gardening at home
May-Oct. Same schedule but add cycling + bible study. We see friends more often Cycle 3x a week for 2 hrs. Sun- Church & Potluck afterwards Tue- Community Center Organic Meal & Farmers Market Thu- Bible study 7pm-8:15pm 1-2 Fridays per month- Meet friends for coffee
We don't see many people in winter. The problem is our home and car are solar powered. Winter we must use a gas generator which is very expensive so we tend to stay home. Or just go out when the sun peaks out and can charge the car. It takes hours to charge the car, very little time to charge the Electric Bikes but who wants to ride in the rain/show during winter? No one. We will usually have friends over 1-2x a month in winter serving only what we've canned since we don't get to the store. Firewood for heat and we use that to heat up our food. We live comfortably on $1500 a month but for 3 months a year, we are sorta home-bound during the snowy winters except on Sundays and Tuesdays. The drive into town is only 20 min round trip
Last edited by AuntEsther; Today at 05:02 PM..
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