WiseDollar

?There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.? Brian Tracy

How does it feel to finally be free of responsibilities of going to work, paying income taxes, and being a productive employee?

It feels blissful for a while but very soon things get real and you begin to struggle to manage your life the way you used to when you were working. Managing time is a lifelong process and you have to learn and relearn it as you advance in your life.

Here are the 5 tips for managing time in retirement.

1. Quit being perfect

Perfectionism may be a strength for young people who are detail-oriented, but it detrimental in old age. You don’t want to waste your limited energy in engaging in things that have little or no value– in the grand scheme of things.

Do not waste your time in things like downloading the right theme for your website, hiring the perfect employees for your company, or reaching a certain milestone in business. Accept whatever you are currently capable of and try to do the best with what you have.

2. Get organized

Remember the time when you had to learn how to be organized in your late 20s or early 30s. Was it an easy thing to do? If being organized is not in your genes, you better learn it by practicing it on a daily basis. No one is born as an organized person. It is a habit that every successful person has to learn. As a retiree, you should try to cultivate this habit by following a morning routine, journal twice a day and perform some kind of a meditation exercise.

3. When overwhelmed, create a to-do-list

In old age, it is very difficult to think everything through. Especially, for people with a neurodegenerative disease like Dementia. If remembering things and getting overwhelmed is your problem, just pull out a yellow legal pad and create a to-do-list. Creating a to-do-list is the easiest way of managing time in retirement. If needed do a brain dump by writing whatever task(that needs to be finished) comes to your mind.

4. Create a schedule that suits you

?If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!?  Benjamin Franklin

Scheduling is another thing that will help you manage your time in retirement. To have a great day, it is necessary to begin the day in the correct way. Do not wake up late or press the snooze button a million times. Wake up early and follow a morning routine. Go for a walk, prepare a breakfast, read a newspaper and create a to-do-list of things that need to be done on the following day.

5. Do not waste your precious time watching television

The above quote stands true for people of all ages. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the author of the book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” has talked a lot about how people lose their momentum when they begin punching below their weight.

Sitting on the couch and watching television all day is not something you have done your whole life. So, why engage in this dangerous habit now. Television is the root cause of mental disorders like depression, anxiety, emotional spending, melancholy, etc.

Bottom line

Managing your time in retirement is a lot different than in a full-time day job. You have to face challenges that you have never known before and deal with things like loneliness and boredom.

Loneliness can make you less productive and, as a result, you would avoid making the effort to manage time altogether. By focusing on the principals of time management, you can solve these unique problems that only a few people have.