Building Structure and Organization in Retirement

In this week’s episode, how can you stay motivated and productive in retirement? 

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Script | 304

Hello, and welcome to episode 304 of the Working With Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host of this show.

We often think time management and productivity are the realms of students and busy people trying to maintain a growing career and balance a growing family. The truth is once we begin making decisions for ourselves, how we use our time becomes a deciding factor in what we do each day. 

This means once we leave the workforce and take full responsibility for what we do each day, managing our time becomes even more important. If you think about it, when we are in work, there’s often a time we need to be in the office, an array of meetings and deadlines for projects that need to be completed. These deadlines and commitments are often given to us by our bosses and customers. 

Once you retire, those deadlines are no longer handed out by bosses and customers. Now you have complete control over what you do each day. You can go to bed and wake up whenever you like; you no longer need to wait for the weekends or evenings to meet up with friends, and all those activities you promised yourself you would do once you retire can now be done. 

Just because you are retired and no longer working does not mean you no longer need to worry about how you manage your time. In many ways, now you have complete control over what you do each day time management and productivity practices are more important than ever. 

And that neatly leads me to this week’s question, and to give you the question it’s time to hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice. 

This week’s question comes from Kai Yee. Kai Yee asks: Hi Carl, how would you suggest a person apply your systems after they have retired?

Hi Kai Yee, thank you for your question.

One of the things I’ve learned is that no matter where you are in life, there will always be things to do. In many ways, when you are working, managing your time is much easier because your work gives you structure to your day. You have a time to wake up, a regular place to be at a set time each day and a finish time. 

When you retire, that structure disappears, and it can be disorientating. You no longer need to wake up to be somewhere at a given time, and without a plan or a reason to get up, time will disappear incredibly fast. 

So the first thing you should do is to give yourself a solid structure which means bringing your calendar into play. 

What do you want time for each day? You could begin with your wake-up and going-to-sleep times. Get these fixed into your calendar. If I were in the fortunate position to retire today, I would set my wake-up time at 8:30 am and bedtime at 1:00 am. I love the quiet between 11 and 1 am, and I get a lot of reading or learning done at that time. Your wake-up and going to bed times will act as the bookends for your day. 

One of the most important things you can do when you retire is to find time each day for exercise. And as I have mentioned before, exercise does not necessarily mean going to the gym or out for a run. All it means is movement. 

When you don’t have any commitments for the day, it can be tempting to wake up, make your morning beverage sit down and not do anything all day. Time will just slip away. 

I experience this frequently when I head over to Ireland for the Christmas holidays. I don’t have a structure, so after waking up, I will make coffee, sit down and read the news or scroll social media and before I know it, it’s lunchtime, and I haven’t done anything. To overcome this, I give myself some structure. 

This year, for example, my wife and I have decided we will go out for a morning run as soon as the sun comes up. The act of getting into our running gear, going out for thirty to forty minutes, coming back and preparing for the day will give us structure and ensure we don’t gain too much weight over the holidays. 

What is your preferred way to get some movement into your day? That could be going out for a walk or a bike ride. It could mean you go to a gym or an exercise class. Or perhaps you do some resistance band exercises. Maintaining your mobility is going to be very important, and that means you can use movement and exercise as part of your daily structure. 

What else would you like time for each day? Perhaps there will be things that don’t necessarily need to be done daily but weekly. Get these into your calendar. All of these things are going to give you structure. 

There are a number of things that will always form a part of your life. Movement, eating, sleeping, learning, hobbies and socialising. All these are important. The question is, where will you put them into your calendar? 

One thing I noticed with my parents, who are both retired, is they still have tasks to do. My father, for instance, has maintained his love of animals and still runs a small farm, not for profit, but to give him something he enjoys doing. Waking up and going out to feed the animals is all a part of his structure, but each week he needs to go and buy feed and do maintenance tasks around his small farm. Repairing fences, fixing leaking roofs and cleaning up are always on his list of things to do. 

It’s easy to imagine that once you retire, you no longer need to keep up with your calendar or task list. Would it be that simple? Just because you stop working, it doesn’t mean there in nothing to do. In reality, while some things will drop off your lists, other things will replace them. 

I know a lot of people say when they retire, they will redecorate their home and do up the garden (back yard if you live across the pond), yet when the time arrives, nothing happens. It all seems overwhelming. Yet, if you set about planning out your projects and making sure your areas of focus remain the central part of your life, you will have the structure to ensure these things happen. This means you will still need a way to manage all those tasks and appointments. 

Always remember, the work won’t get done unless you do the work. 

In many ways, the biggest challenge you will face is no longer having someone to keep you accountable for your projects. Instead of a boss or customers expecting things from you, the only person holding you accountable is going to be you, and that can be hard. This is why building structure into your days is going to be so important. 

What time will you begin the day? What kind of things will you do in the morning? When will you eat? What time will you finish t the day? 

There are a lot of questions you can ask yourself that will help you to build some structure into your day. As with when you were working, consistency and a structured plan are going to ensure the right things are getting done each day. 

When you finally finish your working life, it doesn’t mean life ends. In fact, a lot of what you likely planned to do in life will suddenly become doable. You have the time and, hopefully, the financial resources to do those things. The only question you need to answer is when? When will you do those things? Once you know when you can then go about working on the how. How will you do them? 

All of these questions are no different from when you were in full-time employment. 

It’s easy to believe when you retire, things will change. And sure, they do change, but you will still have stuff to do. That will never change. 

So, if you want to get the most out of your retirement, make a plan. Begin at the year level; what would you like to do this year (or perhaps next year now, given that it’s only a couple of weeks away)? Think in terms of projects you want to complete and places you want to visit. Once you have that list, create four boxes, each representing a quarter. Then spread out these projects and activities you want to do across those quarters. 

For instance, if you want to work on your garden, perhaps Q2 and Q3 would be the best quarters for that activity. What about the places you want to travel to? When will you do your travelling? And finally, for the winter quarters (Q1 and Q4), what activities could you do in those months? 

Having a mapped-out year will give you a sense of purpose. It will give you structure, and it will prevent you from procrastinating. 

Procrastination is going to be the biggest challenge you face. You have all this apparent time, no boss shouting at you, and no customers waiting for you. It’s all on you, and without that accountability, you will suffer. Make sure you build it into your day. 

So there you go, Kai Yee, just because you are retired, it does not mean you don’t need to maintain your activities. In many ways, it can be harder to motivate yourself. However, with a bit of planning, being clear about what you want and know what needs to be done each day, you will soon find yourself moving towards a healthy, happy and fulfilling retirement,

Thank you for your question and thank you for listening. It just remains for me now to wish you all a very, very productive week.