2For66

My last day of full time work was Friday March 15. I had a week off at home, then Carla and I headed off on a 2 week road trip. I’m back home this week and will return to work half-time next week.

Now that I’m back, I’ve been struck by what a project-oriented person I am. I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise given that I’ve worked in a project-driven IT world the past 30 or more years. It’s a realization that shouldn’t have been such a surprise I suppose.  Even as I was headed home from a fantastic road trip I was creating a list of the things I need to accomplish during my week home before returning to work.

• Clean the car
• Hair cut
• Make chicken stock
• Replace burned out bathroom lights
• Take care of taxes
• Load pictures from the trip
• Blog about the trip
• and so on

I’ve gone to the trouble of writing all these tasks in my to-do list organizer (todoist.com)

It’s a good news / bad news kind of deal. On the one hand I like the direction of having the list and the sense of accomplishment as I check things off. On the other hand, I can feel the pressure of “how can I get all this stuff done in 1 week?”

I was talking with my old college friend Dudley about retirement and he related some words of wisdom he received when he semi-retired a few years ago; the ones that resonate are:

• Have something you have to get out to do 2 days a week
• Get sweaty 2 days a week
• Get 30 minutes of exercise a day
• Have friends 10 years older than you
• Have friends 10 years younger than you

That’s a great list (aha, another list) which I have pretty much planned to do anyway; so I like the validation.

I’m thinking that one of the biggest adjustments I will have in my semi-retirement is the transition from being driven by things that have to be accomplished in a given day or week to a …. a …  um not sure. But I think it will be a balance of having only projects to having projects but without due dates. I don’t have to get it all done today.

We’ll see. Now, I’m off to accomplish part of my list for the week; get the oil changed in the car; finish the taxes, get a haircut and make some  chicken stock.