Time and Energy in retirement

I want to talk about energy and retirement, but first to recap on time and retirement.

I have written before about time in retirement, which I think is a critical matter. I talked about the psychology of time and that it is experienced rather than directly measured by each of us, hence we can talk about time going quickly or slowly for us.

I want to take another perspective, that of energy, without getting to a precise definition. Instead of constructing the day according to the clock – for that is the way it was when you worked (tick tock, another meeting, stress, stress) – I want to base it on how you expend energy. As a model think of the electricity grid where you can either draw from it for your energy needs, or contribute to it from your solar panels’ power.

This framework poses a question: How will you allocate the energy of your day? Will you have periods of intense energy spent in a task, combined with restful activities where you re-charge, and even periods that are energy neutral? Now the day has a completely different flavour. The clock is no longer your master. This use of energy as a framework corresponds more closely to a division of the day into things you love doing and those that are a pain to you.

Isn’t this approach likely to reduce your stress in retirement?

Retirement: You won’t know what it is like until you get there.