If you have been following my series that describes my self-publishing adventures related to my book, A Summerland Stories Scrapbook: Memories & Memorabilia, you will know that I’ve been looking forward to retirement! (If you haven’t seen the series, you’ll be able to see a list of all the posts at the end of this one). Of course, theoretically retirement starts (in Canada at least) at age 65 … but I deferred it until age 70, which I reached this summer. I always thought 70 was really old, but now that I’m there, I don’t feel old at all (though I don’t have quite as much energy as I once had…). Consequently, I don’t like the idea of “sitting around enjoying my golden years.” Instead, I’d like to keep busy, doing things that I enjoy.

NOTE! One of my writing friends just phoned me in a panic, thinking I’d no longer be available to help her with her writing… But fear not! I’ll still be editing and helping writers! That is something I enjoy! Not “work”!

Back in the day, before retirement, I did a lot of different things: raising 5 children, teaching elementary and secondary school, tutoring special needs students, doing lots of writing and journalism, running an orchard, editing books and other materials for writers, conduct workshops, and on and on and on (if you’re interested, check out my About page). So I thought, wow, once I retire I’ll be able to sit back and relax! Unfortunately, once this very busy summer was over, and I had a chance to catch my breath, I realized that I’m not very good at relaxing.

What I am pretty good at, is organizational skills. So … I sat down and made a list of a lot of things I have been wanting “to do” for a long time! And then I posted a “schedule” on the wall above my computer desk. It includes things I want to do every day, specific things I want to do on specific days of the week, plus details of some of those things (like business stuff, writing projects, learning new things, blogs, reading, marketing my book, tech stuff, etc.). Now when I get up every morning, I write down the day’s “to do’s” in my agenda book, and as I do each item, I check it off. Of course, since I’m “retired,” for most of the things on the list, I do only about 1/2 hour each instead of hours and hours on specific items, as I used to do before retirement. And if I don’t make it through the entire list (for example, when things pop up like appointments, visits with friends, volunteering, etc.), since I’ve only “missed” about 1/2 hour of any of the “to-do” items, I don’t feel guilty or worried about catching up. Nice!

Want an example of one of my days? Well, let’s see … Between yesterday and today my list includes: ride my bike or go for a walk, practice my guitar (and/or piano), do a French lesson from an online site I signed up for (I highly recommend it), do some reading (at the moment I am reading through Jane Friedman‘s course on Writers Making Money (I also highly recommend Jane’s website, courses, books, etc. … and since I’m not so concerned about making money from my writing now that I’m retired, I can just relax and read this course for fun!), do some knitting or crochet (or embroidery or sewing), work through a math course (for fun!), go through my old journals and rip out lots of pages I no longer want to keep around (also fun!), have some devotional time, blog (here I am!), do a bit of journaling or write to a prompt, poke around in the garden, and of course check out my email and computer stuff like Facebook (no snail mail at the moment, thanks to the Canada Post strike 😦 ). I don’t have too much in the way of “extras” today, though I do need to drop by the local library and pick up a few groceries; yesterday, I spent an hour or so discussing short story how-to’s with a fellow writer. So! Doesn’t that sound like a couple of fun days? I think so!

Once a week I go through my agenda book, and list in another notebook, the main things I’ve been happily doing. For example, I jot down things I’ve been reading or writing, people I’ve visited with, and so on. Maybe I’ll blog more about some of those another time.

What about you? Are you retired? What do you do with your “golden years” days? Let me know in the comments … Click on “Leave a Comment” in the upper left hand corner 🙂