Beware of retirement

The picture of retirement is one of leisure. There is sleeping late, puttering around, taking walks and generally moving along at a slow and uncomplicated pace. So, after three years of retirement, why am I so busy that making a list of things that must get done sounds daunting.

The desk is often cluttered for weeks before little spaces of desk surface appear.

The barn (a 320 sq. ft. storage area under the house) is so messy that the method of putting something in the barn is to open the door and throw. At times, it is necessary to throw hard. The barn gets de-cluttered when it is impossible to navigate to what is needed.

Then, there are the ‘desk’ projects. They can vary from shuffling papers to browsing on the Internet. Notice that neither of those descriptions implies work or productivity. That’s a big problem. But, mindless playing offers two benefits. Work can be put off and there is a sense of productivity when there is absolutely none taking place. Actually, there is a fail-safe system of getting things done. The to-do list becomes a must-do list at which time playing stops and the most minimal work takes place like paying bills.

There are usually a number of items on the desk that require action. That’s when browsing Internet comes in … as in don’t look at the desk. Occasionally, the desk must be scanned for things that have moved from to-do to must-do. Usually, that scan can be done as little as once a week.

Then, there is the ‘pile’. That is a pile of papers on the desk that never goes away. It only grows and shrinks. It is odd that it never completely goes away. The pile can grow to a height of a foot or more. It is presumed that there is nothing critical in the pile. That defines what gets scattered on the desk … they stay off the pile until they are paid or processed in some way that generates something to be mailed or, worse, requires being fully present. Sometimes the pile gets thick objects in it like a pamphlet or bulky envelope. They take the highest priority because they have the biggest impact on lowering the size of the pile. And, it is impossible to ‘neaten’ the pile (for company) with bulky items in it.

Of course, there are other things that are not on the desk that will eventually need to be done. Those are usually building or maintenance tasks. Those items get done when it is utterly impossible to avoid them. Either someone else keeps pointing them out or it get so tiring to think about them that it forces surrendering to action.

It seems like there is absolutely no time to actually do things that need to get done. There is a cause for this. Somehow, when there is a job to go to, it is easier to get things done at home because it is a different environment. And, it also seems easier because work at the job was either challenging or boring. Either way, tasks at home are small compared to ‘real’ work at the job. So, a job causes all of those desk items to get done and the pile is rarely over a few inches.

The cause for being so busy comes from committing to repetitive tasks or projects. First of all, everyone who knows your retired will ask for help. Then there is filling day over time. Slowly, without noticing, the days get filled, Tasks and commitments are agreed to. This happens until the days are completely full … hence totally busy. Of course, the tasks that are taken on are much more fun than the desk. So, there is a little denial taking place as the days and weeks are filled with ‘more interesting’ activities.

A list is then required to keep track of the desk items and other projects when the threshold of totally-busy takes place. But, the list is avoided at all costs because it requires at least an awareness of what ‘should’ be done. This avoidance is required because there is no time to do items on a list because the totally-busy syndrome is fully engaged.

The situation eventually becomes critical. Even then, the notion of critical varies. A very big pile, for example, can lower the value of ‘critical’ because the higher the pile gets the less appealing it is to do hence just lower the value of ‘critical’ so it doesn’t need to be done. In the end, when denial fails, the word ‘consequences’ comes to mind. That’s a killer word. It suggests do it now or suffer great pain.

So, there you have it. It is the anatomy of one profile of retirement. It sounds pretty bad but there is always the get-away option. There are certainly different protocols of retirement that could be followed. And, there are many ways of managing the time. One picture of retirement that is becoming very popular very fast is to not retire. Hmmmm. Is that an oxymoron. It suggests that one does not retire so that there is time to do things.

There has to be a better way.