There are two types of working people when it comes to contemplating retirement: those who wish they could retire now, and those who can’t imagine how they’d fill their days without a job.
I met one of the latter recently. He made it clear that he’s not ready to retire. He loves his work, which is great! But he also seemed puzzled by the idea of choosing not to have something external controlling much of one’s week. “What do you do all day?” he asked me.
Until pretty recently, I wondered the same thing. What did people without caregiving responsibilities do all day without “productive” (i.e. paid) work? Watch TV for hours? Lie around reading? Waste half their days in the time sink that is social media?
But so far it hasn’t been all that difficult to become the chief executive of my own life. (And yes I know it’s been less than two months.) Without external scaffolding, I’ve been able to create a structure and schedule that’s working for me.
What do I do all day?
Get a relaxed start many mornings, instead of rushing out of bed for an early meeting or pressing work deadline.
Meet friends - for lunch or dinner, for walks around Boston, for walks on local trails, for walks in my neighborhood, just to hang out.
Boost my exercise and optimize its timing. I do balance, stretching, and flexibility exercises at the start of almost every day, instead of often pushing that off until later. I can take multiple walks, not just one. I go running when the temperature is best for it, instead of squeezing runs in around work. I go to the gym when it’s less crowded, and I can take mid-morning classes instead of only at night.
Take more bike rides. I have time before lunch to cycle up to a nearby botanical garden, take a walk there, then bike home. Or bike on a local rail trail.
Meditate. I did short meditations some mornings before work, but now I do so almost daily. I’m starting with just 5 or 10 minutes a day, but I hope to work up.
Take more photos and especially edit more of my photos. I enjoy “digital darkroom” photo editing, but rarely had time to work on more than a few unless I was on vacation.
Write this blog.
Attend special events when they’re less crowded, such as the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Sunflower Extravaganza or (soon) the Museum of Fine Art’s Dali exhibit.
Take a live online class. I’m trying to improve my rudimentary American Sign Language. I took a couple of classes before, but now I have more time to practice between sessions.
Take multiple on-demand online classes. I’m currently learning basic Python, the Haystack AI framework, and conversational Portuguese. I love learning languages, both computer programming ones and spoken ones. I also purchased an online photo editing class I want to start watching soon.
Read. I borrow books and e-books from the library more frequently and relax in our yard much more often reading novels, newspapers, or magazines.
Write posts for my little neighborhood blog. I started that blog years ago, but now I can write posts when I want, instead of either getting up early to do it before work or doing it after dinner for the next day.
Start investigating how I might code a hobby AI project that’s more advanced than others I’ve done.
Agree to do a 2-hour R training session for journalists at a New England First Amendment Coalition workshop, which means starting to put together a presentation for next month.
Take a few short trips, locally and nearby in the US. I hope to do more of those, both planned and spur of the moment, as well as get back to taking longer ones. I remain Covid cautious – or as we like to call ourselves, Covid aware – which is the main reason I haven’t started planning some lengthier itineraries.
Go to orchards for peaches and apples on weekdays, when places are less crowded.
Go to more farmers markets during the workday.
Deal with retirement paperwork.
Keep up with what might interest me in the R and generative AI arenas. When I find things, share the most compelling ones on Mastodon, LinkedIn, and some journalism Slacks.
Spend too much time on other social media. That’s one thing I want to cut down on, but I hope that will happen naturally after the November US elections.
House chores. Of course.
When the weather is more appropriate for indoor activities and I can do less outside, I also expect to spend more time on decluttering our house, crocheting – I do this often in the winter but less when it’s warm, cooking more, and taking additional classes. And I may want to start freelance writing occasionally.
Funny thing is, except for the retirement paperwork and relaxed weekday mornings, there’s not much new in the mix yet. What’s profoundly different is how often I can do these things. It was impossible to squeeze all that into a given month while also working a full-time job. If I was learning ASL, I didn’t have the bandwidth to also learn Portuguese and study an AI framework and do serious editing work on my photos and put together an R workshop and see friends often and and and. . . .
What do I do now? A lot more of what I enjoy.
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