I’m definitely going to need a bit of routine in early retirement.
I’ve always been too much of a born daydreamer to allow myself to live life completely unstructured. I worry I will absentmindedly dawdle my time away if I don’t create create some regular plans. Like Joe Walsh sang, “People say I’m lazy, but it takes all my time”. In fact, while I treasure unstructured time and often balk at too much regiment, I’ve secretly believed that MegaCorp life helped me be productive throughout my career by enforcing an operating rhythm to my days, weeks, months & years.
Here are some thoughts on what a post-work schedule might look like morning, afternoon & night:
MORNINGS
- Wake up between 7:30a-8:30a, but not before the sun rises
- Make the bed right away – whoever is last up, makes the bed
- Have breakfast (watch morning TV) or read the newspaper
- Get workout done before it’s too late in the morning – done by 10am is great
(My wife typically goes to the gym in the morning and comes home @ noon) - Household “adminis-trivia” and projects
- Run for groceries / shopping when stores are empty
AFTERNOONS
- Have lunch at home or dine out with friends
- Coffee shop / library / bookstore – read books, surf internet, post to blog
- Household projects, hobbies or planning trips
- Explore the city, visit a museum, go shopping
- Go to a late movie matinee
- Take a late-afternoon nap 🙂
EVENINGS
- I don’t imagine evenings being too different than now
- Watch the evening news
- Evening events, out to eat, classes, or leagues
- Watch TV or a movie at home
- To bed @ 10:30-11:30pm, instead of 9:30-10:00p now
These thoughts represent some ideas for ordinary days where there is nothing special going on. Travel, board meetings (in & out of town), holidays, and special events will break up the ordinary. You can see that I’m hoping to fit the “must do’s” in the mornings and “nice to do’s” in the afternoons. It seems like a workable, but not too rigid plan. I’ve also created a list of dozens of activities – my “not bored list” – to keep busy, especially on weekends when everyone else is off of work.
How scheduled do you expect to be in early retirement?
Image Credit: Pixabay
MrFireStation 
This is a lot what my life looks like these days even though I’m still doing consulting part-time. Believe it or not, one of my favorite parts is being in the stores when they are empty.
LikeLiked by 1 person
At times I might be bored, but I’m sure I won’t wish I’m in a budget meeting!
LikeLike
It took me awhile to move shopping to mid-week, mid-day. It’s odd to be in stores when it is empty. But, one of my favorite food shops only makes their specialty breads on the weekends! They offered to hold one if I call on the WE and come in on Monday. So much for impulse bread buying.
LikeLike
Sounds like you are a loyal customer! 😃
LikeLike
Great topic! Though we don’t necessarily plan to be “scheduled” necessarily, we will definitely have a routine that we’ll follow for some of the must-do items during the day, like walk the dogs, laundry, grocery shopping and things like that.
We tend to be early risers, so we’ll probably be up at least by 7am, probably earlier. Walk the dogs. Then return back to the RV and, well, this is where our routine might end. Lunch will differ depending on whether or not we are hiking that day. I’ll be out and about with my camera a lot or writing on the blog. Or producing the documentary that I want to create after I finally quit. Bed, probably around 9pm. Yeah, we’re old. 🙂
I bet a lot of this will get further defined as we move into this new lifestyle of ours.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I suppose having dogs means that a certain schedule gets followed. Like kids, their needs can drive the rest of the household (or, Airstream-hold in your case). Thanks for the comment!
LikeLike