December 30, 2019 - 108 - "I Can't Retire: How Will I Get Anything Done?"

Productivity and Deadlines

    You know that saying:  "If you want something done, ask a busy person."?  That's so true.  Not only if you're looking for someone to help you.  But also if you're trying to get stuff done.

      I've lived both ends of this stick.  For years I'd hold vacation schedules that in no way resembled our vacation plans.  I'd have to back up trips before and after our actual vacations, but then I'd have these random periods of time off.

      So I'd make big plans for all the things I was going to do:  I'm going to clear out the garage,  write a novel, get my car inspected, read 'War and Peace', solve world hunger, etc.

     But then the vacation would come and the first day I'd think:  'I really need to enjoy my vacation time a little.  Today I'm going to just chill out.

     And then I'd start making plans with friends..  Or I'd volunteer to do something I'd regret later.  In one way or another I'd end up filling up or frittering away my time off.

    Until towards the end of the vacation when the thing I actually needed or wanted to do became crystal clear.  All else fell away and I would buckle down and get some pretty incredible stuff accomplished.

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Where's the Deadline?

  And that's why retirement makes me nervous.

     When I worked a 9-5 job I always got the most  done

Sunday night before going back to work on Monday.  After a weekend of not getting much done I would suddenly get into gear.



     I'm much more of a planner these days, and more disciplined than I've ever been before.  But, still, I don't want to find myself ambling along being 'about to do'...all the things I know I need to be doing now.

     I do better when I'm busy.  When I've got a lot going on I get up earlier, stay up later, and work much more steadily through the day. 

     Without the 'going back to work' deadline I could always just 'do it tomorrow.'  Or maybe the day after that.

Too Young to Retire

     I also just feel I'm too young to retire.  Energy-wise, I'm the same as I've always been.  Maybe even better.  I was anemic in my 20's, in my 30's I ate a lot of bad food, never exercised,  and kept weird hours.  Only in my 40's did I start doing better.

     Now I'm in my 50's I'm a machine.  Well, maybe not a machine exactly, but I mostly feel pretty great.


   ( Plus, after years and years of socking away money I didn't feel I could spare, my 401K is finally
starting to get impressive.)

Still Having Fun

     I also still love my job.  I enjoy the interaction, and I look at it as a challenge.  I just now feel like I'm good at enjoying the fun people and bobbing and weaving around the tough ones.

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     I no longer want to 'die on the cart', as I joked I would when I was new to the job.  (Because I was so thrilled not to be attending boring meetings, praying for a three day weekend and feeling chained to my desk...) 

     Retire?  No way.

     I'm not sure when it will start to appeal to me.  All I know now is:  not quite yet.

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"A deadline is negative inspiration.  

Still, it's better than no inspiration at all." 

-Rita Mae Brown

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"I write pretty much year-round, but 

I definitely do more when a deadline is looming."

-Jason Isbell

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"Retirement is not in my vocabulary.  

They aren't going to get rid of me that way."

-Betty White

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"Retirement at sixty-fix is ridiculous.  When I was sixty-five I still had pimples."

-George Burns

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