Your Wake/Sleep Plan: Are You a Night-Owl, or a Morning Person?

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Now that you're retiring, you may like just fine the schedule you always kept while working -- maybe you get up at 5:30am, and when it's time to go to work, you're ready -- to go to retirement, though, not to work.

And if that's you, that's terrific. My wife is the Original Morning Person: In her ideal world, she'd be up vacuuming at 6am, mowing the lawn at 7am, and working on her photo albums by 10am.

Oy! That's not me. But it has taken me two years of retirement for this to dawn on me.

RETURNING TO MY NATURAL RHYTHM
When I was freelancing many years ago and working from home -- back in my youth -- I worked best in the afternoons and at night -- I had to unwind around 1am to hit the sack, and didn't really function until 10am.

But that was then. In the many years since, I've gotten up on weekdays anywhere from 5:30am to 7:30am, depending on the job requirements. And I've struggled -- not always successfully -- to get to bed before 11pm so I could function in the mornings.

Yet when I retired, I tried to keep to the same schedule as when I was working -- get up at 6am -- OK, make that 7am -- so I "won't waste the day."

Trouble is, I waste the mornings anyway, as I drag myself out of bed and then sit at the breakfast table, reading both newspapers and nibbling away for two hours or more. Then I'd find ways to dither away most of the rest of the morning, in a fog, only becoming functional as noon approached.

We eat at 6 or so, then we go out for the evening, or, more commonly, watch some TV until 9 or 10, then head to bed. Where I toss and turn for too long.

The "Duh!" moment came recently when I switched my watercolor-painting class from Monday mornings to Thursday evenings. It made a huge difference.

I was a slug at the Monday morning classes. Unhappily, coffee does not wake me up and stimulate me the way it does many people, so I couldn't rely on the chemical boost. So I'd zone off through the morning class, happy when it petered out near noon.

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The Thursday evening class is a whole different thing. I am awake and alert at 7pm when I arrive, and in the next two hours I actually get more done than I had in the Monday-morning three-hour class.

Well, I'm not stupid! It only took me several months of that for it to sink in. I am still a night owl! I haven't converted to a morning person by dint of getting up at 6am for thirty years! I am not asleep mornings because I'm lazy -- or, well, not only because I'm lazy. It's how I'm built!

So I've switched my schedule: Now I get up at 8am, I don't worry about wasting the mornings (I try to do things that don't require attention or brains), and I get rolling after lunch.

Then after dinner, and after TV, at 9 or 10pm, I head back to my computer or my art desk and get back to work for the next two hours!

I go to bed at midnight, and I sleep like a baby!

TIME TO CHECK YOUR PULSE
You can do the same thing. Retired, your life is now different in many ways. Figure out what your natural sleep/wake rhythm, and adjust yourself accordingly. See how that feels.

It's not all perfect. There's the Partner thing -- my wife is a morning person and I'm a night person, but she is, lucky for me, very accommodating -- she waits to vacuum until 8am, isn't that sweet?

Give it a try.

AND ANOTHER THING: MAKE YOUR NEW TO-DO LIST

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If you are the kind of person who lives by your to-do list -- a lot of people in white-collar jobs have to juggle many independent activities at once, and without a to-do list, you'll keel right over! -- then as retirement day looms, you will want to do to your To Do list the same thing that you're doing with your emails: Rework it completely!

You won't go from a 15-page bullet list of things to do, to an empty page! Believe me! You will soon have a 15-page bullet list of NEW things you now want to do -- things that will be fun, or just things that will be very satisfying, now that you have the time to pay attention to them!

And, as with your emails, your to-do list needs to be revisited from time to time, and adjusted as you learn and grow!

Tame Your Email (Now That You're Retired)

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You get a lot of email related to your work and career -- email lists, publications, PR lists, associations. Now that you're retiring, it's time to clean it up.

Otherwise you'll still be getting a hundred emails a day, but they won't be relevant. Or, frankly, all that interesting, the further away from retirement day you get.

Bummer! Well -- on the OTHER hand, you will now have time for a lot of the kinds of emails of much more interest to you in your newly retired persona: Emails from friends, from and about hobbies, linking you to social-network sites you never had time to pay attention to before.

STEP 1: CUT/PRUNE/SLICE MERCILESSLY
If you have mixed feelings about leaving your old job, this step may be a bit painful. It emphasizes the change. If you are ready (more than ready!) to lay down your load, however, this can be a refreshing, stimulating step, and a relief!

For your work email, in the month or two before you retire, start by unsubscribing from mailing lists you know you soon won't need -- this will be mainly emails you get from trade publications and the like. You won't be needing to keep up on this stuff; you will soon have better things to do.

[BUT! If you plan to keep one foot in the water -- freelancing or consulting with your old company or in the industry -- you'll be more selective about what you chop. And the lists you want to stay on, change them to your home email address!]

When you've done this first cutting step, your mailbox may lighten up considerably. It's surprising how much info comes to you through that email window!

You may also have to let clients or agencies and other relationships know you'll be taking off, and handing them over to somebody else, if that's appropriate. (Or hint to them that you'll still be doing some consulting/contract/freelance business in the future, hint hint hint.)

This might also be the time to create a general-purpose retirement announcement, ready for your last few days, when you can send it out to everybody else -- colleagues, partners, more distant clients, providers, and just buddies. Expect to get a lot of feedback from this emailing -- you might want to have a more detailed boilerplate response to the inevitable "Whatcha gonna do now, buddy?" replies.

When you get home, do a similar hack job on the no-longer-needed email lists you're on at your home email address.

STEP 2: SIGN UP EXTRAVAGANTLY
Well, that's a relief! Now let's turn around and sign up for a bunch of stuff -- but this time, it's stuff revolving around your new life! You probably have an idea of several Web sites, magazines, clubs, interest groups, maybe social networks, schools, entertainment venues, and other activities that will now be able to get more of your attention -- so make a master list and start signing up for new stuff. Pretty soon your mailbox (both email and postal) will start filling up with great ideas for things to do.

STEP 3: LATER, PRUNE IT BACK A BIT
If you're at all like me, you will go 'way overboard with Step 2. But that's OK -- you're testing your wings, trying the air currents, seeing what you like and what was actually a pain in the neck now that you have time to take a closer look at it. So put on your calendar, right now, a date six months or a year from now -- that's the date you will REVIEW all your lists, mailing lists, clubs, groups, and activities -- and plan to cut back on the ones you're not interested in. This is what you can expect when you are in Exploration Mode, which is where you'll be for the initial part of your retired life. Check it out -- cut it off if you don't like it. Learn, choose, learn some more.

And then do it again in a couple of years. Keep the email box supple and flexible, not bogged down with dumb stuff you skip right over!

My new night-owl sleep-wake schedule!

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Last night I went to bed at 11 and tossed and turned and finally decided that I need to change my wake-sleep schedule to something that suits me better.

I have always been a night-owl, but since I retired two years ago I have tried to shift my daily schedule to get up in the mornings, for two reasons: First, for a vague sense of not wanting to waste the day; and second, because my wife is a morning person and would love nothing so much as to start vacuuming at 6am; it's frustrating for her not to be able to make any noise until I get up, and if I get up at 9 or 10 she'll go crazy.

So I have tried getting up at, say, 7am or earlier, and going to bed at 10 or 11. It's not working.

I drag in the morning; as a result, I spend at least two hours on breakfast, reading the paper and drinking coffee and trying to get rolling. (I have discovered to my dismay that the caffeine in coffee appears to have no energizing impact on me; I tested this and found I could have a cup of strong coffee just before bed without interfering with my sleep. Sigh.)

I have a watercolor painting class at 9am Mondays and I've dragged through that class for two years. A couple of months ago I switched to the Thursday evening version of that class—and what a difference! I get more done, and am more awake, and in a better mood Thursdays at 7pm than I ever have been Mondays at 9am!

I finally am getting the hint my body is sending me: Change the schedule!

So I will try this schedule:
Up at 8am.
After dinner, watch TV as usual or do other relaxing things until 10pm
10-midnight – go back to my computer or workstation and write or paint or do other work.
I'll still get 8 hours sleep but I might get more done!

We'll see.....

Three Strategies for Organizing Your New Retired Life

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For many of us, the idea of heading into retirement without A Plan is terrible to contemplate.

Yet when we sit down to think about it, for many of us the list of possible activities gets unmanageably long and complicated.

There are major, multi-day or multi-week projects (or longer!) -- Travel around the country, or around the world; really get into art, now that I have time; write the great American novel; learn to cook/speak Chinese/maintain my family Web page/hit a golf ball/relax.

The great thing about these ideas when you've retired is that you can actually focus on ONE THING for an extended period -- a luxury you didn't have when you were working. Imagine how much progress you might make if you spent every day painting? Or how fun it would be to drive the country for weeks on end, with no deadlines to return home for?

Mixed in are lots of little projects, like joining social clubs, catching up on my reading, writing letters, visiting local sights and museums, going to the movies and to plays. These are great because you can do these things without worrying about your work schedule! And some of them are better done during weekdays (no crowds! lower costs!) than crowded weekends when all the working stiffs are out there too! Problem is, of course -- you can't do EVERYTHING -- at least, not all at the same time.

So how do you decide? How do you organize so you can make the most of your vast amounts of free time -- vast amounts that quickly shrink down as you fill up your calendar!

Once you've made that Master List of every possible wishlist item, urgent and non urgent, maybe/could be/dream-on! activity, goal, action, pleasure, indulgence, and achievement -- here are THREE POSSIBLE STRATEGIES for ORGANIZING -- so you can get the MOST out of the upcoming years of your new retired life!

Each involves creating a calendar.

STRATEGY 1: THE CHUNKY-PEANUT-BUTTER CALENDAR

Pick a TIMEFRAME: A month, a quarter, a year, even five years!

Start posting to your calendar the various activity ideas across the timeframe.

-You might devote an hour a day, or a week, to one thing; half a day a week or a month to another item; a day or a full week to a third activity, repeated every month or quarter or once a year.

-You end up with a highly varied life, with everything from minor to major items sprinkled.

Advantages of this approach: You maximize activities at once. You're organized! You're Having your Cake and Eating it Too! And as you do things, you can drop ones you get tired of and fill in with new ones you discover.

Disadvantages: Not good if you are a one-thing-at-a-time focus kind of person. It will seem like you're overly busy, and that your life is just one damned thing after another.

BEST IF YOU: Are a person who loves activity, who bores quickly, who doesn't want to miss out on anything, who doesn't want to invest in the discipline of the long haul, who has a wish list filled with activities best done in short bursts.

STRATEGY 2: THE SMOOOOOTH CALENDAR.

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In this strategy, you devote lengthy pieces of time to key activities, but ONE AT A TIME.

For example, you always wanted to paint; so you plan out a solid month (or a week or a quarter, or more or less, depending on your tolerance level) to do NOTHING but paint.

You'll have other daily activities to deal with, of course, but your MAJOR ACTIVITY EACH DAY during this period is -- painting; or taking painting classes; or going on painting retreats.

Advantage: You can really buckle down and focus on a specific thing. This is something you could never do when working -- but now you have, what? Yes -- you have TIME. And you have it in long periods, chunks you could never have before. Take advantage of it.

You may also discover after three weeks of painting that, by gum, you hate painting! That is a useful thing to learn too. You can cross that off your list and move on to the next big thing!

Disadvantages: If you have 20 big things you want to do, you'll have to prioritize which to do first. Also, your spouse may not like you disappearing into your painting room every day for four or five hours. Or, if your Thing involves being away from home, your Significant Other may not like that, and may or may not want to come along. Also, any other significant event that interrupts you will require you to exercise discipline (ugh!) to get you back on track. 

BEST IF YOU: Are haunted by the feeling that you haven't progressed in your soul (or your craft) because you haven't buckled down and concentrated on one thing! It's also great if you have a yen to get into something but you don't know if you'll really like it -- spend a solid month learning and doing rock climbing, and at the end of that time you will KNOW if you love rockclimbing! Then you can make your plans accordingly! (If you turn out to HATE rockclimbing, you can try the next thing on your try-me wishlist!)

STRATEGY 3: EACH YEAR -- A NEW LIFE!

It's easy to forget that you very probably have MANY YEARS left in which to do things. Sure, you will sooner or later (may it be later!) lose energy, lose health, lose mental capacity. But until that happens, you probably have ten, twenty, even THIRTY YEARS to try all your favorite things!

So you don't HAVE to do everything at once! You may not even have to CHOOSE some things and leave out others! You may be able to do it all -- if you take the LONG VIEW -- you can do THIS now, then THAT, and later THIS OTHER THING!

(You need bigger horizons!)

This strategy is good if you have several big, REALLY BIG, dreams. You want to walk across Europe. You want to spend a year in the Peace Corps. You want to start a rock band and tour. You really really want to paint lots of pictures, or write lots of books, or run for office, or completely redo the house -- or you want to build a house, for yourself or for your kids.

Big plans call for long-term investment.

So make 'em -- Prioritize your list, and then make a 10-YEAR PLAN (let's say it's ten years, though it could be five, or twenty!): Year 1: Europe trip; Year 2: Peace corps; Year 3: Rock Band; Year 4: Rebuild the House; Year 5: Make Picasso jealous.

Plan for several years out, and plan for what date you'll consider shifting gears. Then try to actually shift gears -- BUT REMEMBER: If you're having too much fun doing year 3's thing, then heck -- change it to a two-year commitment! Nobody's checking up on you!

And you can relax, knowing that you will get to those other big ideas, too, in due time! So you can enjoy now, without feeling that you're not paying proper attention to other important things. You will, you will!

AND AS BEFORE -- if you learn that you hate, or are bored, by this year's project -- drop it! Move the next item up to today.

Advantages: Great for someone with a number of big plans, you can devote the kind of time that's really needed to do the job right. At the same time, you're not locking yourself into one specific life for all time.

Disadvantages: Well, as always, it's great if your spouse supports you in your plans for this year and the upcoming years.

BEST IF YOU: Can think long term. Would get a lot of satisfaction looking back on all the big things you've managed to pull off!

An important caveat is that DAILY URGENCIES can throw you off your stride as you move forward with your plan, no matter which strategy you choose. Your CALENDAR will be your guide, and your savior -- keep coming back to it, keep thinking in terms of minimizing the distraction items and disruptions -- this is a good year to greatly reduce your TV time, for example, or your Web time for that matter! Don't spend two hours over the newspapers at breakfast-time (like I do!). Don't get too distracted! You've got things to do, and only a limited lifetime to do them in! (Dammit!)

Good luck! And let us all know what Strategy you come up with -- and any new ideas or new strategies you can suggest to the rest of us!

--best,

Mac