How to Get Nothing Done in Retirement

(Celebrating my birthday in Hawaii this week:  I'm calling it my Hawaii Five-O)

I fear I have chased someone away from retirement with this blog.  Which is kind of funny because some people have accused me of painting too rosy a picture of retirement here.  I do think it’s pretty rosy, so it’s probably true that my picture is rosier than say a blogger that doesn’t think retirement is very rosy.   It’s especially hard not to paint a rosy picture today, as I enjoy my morning coffee on a lanai in Hawaii overlooking the ocean. 

But I received an email a couple of weeks ago from a new reader that binge read my blog.  She sat down and read the whole thing from beginning to end.  By the way, I love it when someone writes me to tell me that they sat down and read my whole blog from beginning to end.  It makes me think that if I wrote a book about retirement, someone might actually read it. 

In any case I loved the email, even though she told me that I might have scared her away from retirement.  Because really, that’s great if you figure out before you actually retire, that you weren’t quite ready for it.  And especially great if I helped you realize that.  She is 44 years old, so she has a lot of years left to decide retirement might be right some time down the road.

The thing that scared her was that it seems like, from my blog, that I don’t get anything done in retirement.   She fears that things like laundry, cleaning, gardening, and working out, things that she currently manages to squeeze into her 60-70 hour work week, will expand to fill whole days in retirement.  She’s read many other retirement blogs that talk about slowing down and putting things off until tomorrow.  She worries about that part too.

I get it, because it’s mostly true.  But then why do I feel like I still don’t have enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do?  And also, why do I feel like my house still isn’t clean enough and my garden isn’t manicured enough?  And why haven’t I posted to my blog since November 25^th?  Maybe I’m actually accomplishing more than meets the Internet?

Start with the week after my last blog post, which I wrote instead of practicing piano, cleaning my house or tending my garden.  First we drove to LA to visit my husband’s family for the holiday.  We spent Thanksgiving night at my sister-in-law’s house.  Then we packed up and moved to our friends’ house for leftovers and movie night, an annual tradition.  My friend Steve is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures, so we get choose from stacks of movies, some of which haven’t even been released yet.  Oh yeah, and did I mention he has a really, really nice wine cellar?  But I digress.

After lunch and a hike the next day, we headed to my parents-in-law's for a quick rest and then headed out to dinner.  On the way back up north the following day, we spent a night in Santa Barbara and then got a tour of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo from our friends’ daughter, arriving back home to our still-dirty house with the still-overgrown garden on Monday night. 

Still no time for cleaning, gardening, piano playing, internet surfing, or posting to my blog, the next day I had a webinar, then a conference call, then a meeting in San Francisco--all for my new volunteer job bringing Obamacare to the people.  Leaving Wednesday, the only day left that week to practice piano, to cram for my piano lesson that evening. 

Thursday I spent the day on the campus of San Francisco City College talking to students about signing up for health insurance.  Did I mention it was 48 degrees and we were outside all day?  At least it wasn’t raining.  Friday I had an audit committee meeting at my other volunteer job, followed by a holiday luncheon for the team, followed by time for a quick workout before going to the neighbors’ house for a Christmas party.

Sunday I spent the whole day (now only 46 degrees—but still not raining) staffing a Covered California health insurance exchange table at a holiday street fair on the main drag of my little town.  Did I mention it was 46 degrees?  I got home just in time to change my clothes and run up to San Francisco to join friends for the first of my birthday celebration dinners. 

While I did manage to sneak in a workout most days that week, here is a list of the things that remain undone:  housecleaning, gardening, internet-surfing, TV watching, book reading, and piano playing (except that one day of cramming).  I have no idea what is happening in the news, I have no idea what is going on in my friends’ Facebook lives, and I have no idea what is going on with all my favorite bloggers.  In the hours before we left for Hawaii, I did manage to do a load of laundry (although I seem to have turned all my white items gray), and pack for the trip without forgetting anything of major importance. 

So I guess the point is, if you really want to get things done, don’t retire.

Related Posts:

            I’m Not Lazy, I just Look Lazy

            How to be Lazy Without Even Trying

            What’s the Difference Between Vacation and Retirement?

 

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Comments

[Tom Sightings]

IMHO, 44 is just too young to retire. It's not too young to quit your job if you don't like it; it's not too young to leave work and follow your dream; it's not too young to start doing what you really want ... but it's too young to just retire. Come to think of it, by that score, maybe 66 is too young to retire as well!

[Retired Syd]

Tom: I thought retiring at 44 WAS leaving work to follow your dream. Oh yeah, that was my dream, not necessarily everyone else's!

[Kelly @ Try New Things]

I love to read how much retired people fit into a day. The difference is that when you are retired you do the things that you want to do. So busy is fun and it comes from having so many great choices. But on some days you can just choose to do nothing and that is delicious also. And you can work sometimes if it fits the prerequisite of being something that you enjoy.

I have just reached my one year (early) retired anniversary. I just wrote a blog post about all the amazing experiences I have had in that year.

There is nothing boring about early retirement!

[deegee]

For me, early retirement is not just what you get to do but what you get to avoid doing. I was starkly reminded of this yesterday when we had a sudden and freakish snowstorm yesterday (Tuesday, December 10th) here in New York. The snow began where I lived less than 30 minutes before I would have to trek outside in it to get to the train, soon followed by two more walks outdoors before arriving at my old office.

The point is that not having to make the long, awful commute to my office even two days a week is by far the best benefit of being retired at 45 (5 years ago). It was very nice sitting in my nice, warm apartment eating a warm bowl of oatmeal instead of making a cold, shivery walk outside to begin a lousy trip to work.

[Retired Syd]

Kelly: Yes, delicious is the exact right word. But I want to do all that I want to do and still have a clean house, a manicured garden, and my weekly piano assignment perfected too. As another wise reader told me, you can have it all, just not at the same time!

Happy retire-aversary!

[Retired Syd]

deegee: Yes, I can identify with that, I mean it being 82 degrees here where I would not have been if I were still working. It would be busy season--not vacation tine!

[linda vaughn]

If you write a book on retirement, rest assured I'll be first in line to buy it!

[Barb]

Or, as one friend says...........I just don't know how I found time to work. I haven't traveled in months and still barely manage to keep my house and yard perfect. What gets in the way? Dinner with friends, sewing, reading, sleeping, art classes, walking, volunteering!!! whew!!

[retireby40]

Happy Birthday! My birthday is coming up soon too and is four-o for me...
I don't have time to do all the chores either. In my case, it's probably because of our 2 year old kid. He sucks up all of my time and then some. Once he goes off to school, then I'll try to do more.

[Banjo Steve]

I seem to remember that years ago, the vision of being a "beach bum" held some nice sway. Odd jobs when necessary and/or desired, otherwise time was something for the beach bum to command. Now in my fifth year of retirement, I am thrilled to be out of the "should" mode that requires production and accomplishment. While there are still many, many things that I want to produce and accomplish, they are based on "want to", as you also are doing. Nothing to prove, and acknowledging that idle time can be wonderfully nurturing, affirming, and even productive. As has been said many times before, life is just too important to be taken too seriously. Again, thanks for all that you communicate and affirm.

[fred doe]

Will Rogers: (I'm to busy to work) All though I've been doing the snow plow gig? Lucrative very lucrative but those Hawaii pictures look very nice very nice! (dam you Syd, dam you:))))))

[Dominic]

Hi Syd
Hawaii looks beautiful how long did you stay?
Also happy birthday.

Dominic

[dkzody]

My husband and I had a similar conversation today as we meandered around town, first taking a long walk on the university campus where we were once students 40 years ago, then a leisurely lunch at a favorite restaurant, followed by a trip to Barnes & Noble. I usually only go to B&N very early in the morning as the place becomes a zoo later in the day (as it was today), but I knew I had no plans for the rest of the day. I had no where to be. No one was expecting me. There were no chores demanding my attention RIGHT NOW. So we didn't hurry, we didn't get frantic as the traffic backed up, we didn't lose our cool as we missed every green light on the way home. We have all kinds of time.