The Retirement Newsletter: Taking on too much

Issue Number: 193 (46) — Where does the time go?

Photo by Author — I’m far too busy….

Welcome

Welcome to issue 193 (46) — taking on too much.

Time is an interesting problem in retirement — where does it go?

Before I retired, I was very busy with my work. I was putting in 8 to 10-hour days, sometimes six days a week, and when I was working, I was busy. No long tea breaks. No long lunch breaks. It was full on from when I started in the morning until I finished in the evening. And when I was working, I envied those who had retired and had “free time”. I was envious because they were no longer tied to the working day. They had the freedom to choose how they spent their time.

However, one thing confused me. One thing bothered me.

How come all the retired folk I spoke to would say they were extremely busy and couldn’t understand how they used to hold down a full-time job?

How were they so busy? Why were they so busy?

I have now been retired for 10 months, and I can confirm that when you retire, something weird happens to time. It flies by and your days soon fill up.

Within a few weeks of being retired, I found myself with days so full of things to do that I wondered how…