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I WAS FORTUNATE to find enough time during my working years to pursue various hobbies and other personal interests. My part-time work arrangement allowed me to have four-day weekends. I’d hoped that, after retirement, I would have even more time to take on personal projects.
But surprisingly, I found myself with less free time. Not only was I failing to start new projects, such as writing software for the website of the nonprofit I cofounded, but also I was struggling to keep up with my current commitments. It stressed me out.
An obvious explanation was travel. Since retiring, I’d taken several trips with friends and family, including a few multi-week vacations. I’d also devoted significant time to catching up with old friends. Yet this didn’t fully account for where my time was going, especially during the weeks I was home.
I had a similar experience in my career when I first took on a managerial role. Once I became a manager, I found myself struggling to cope with a growing backlog of work. I began each day by preparing a to-do list, only to find that, by the end of the day, most of the items remained untouched.
Frustrated and exhausted, I set out to address my time management issue. I resorted to a rather crude method to get to the bottom of it. I meticulously kept a detailed journal to record my activities hour by hour. After maintaining the time log for several weeks, I reviewed it and my problems became self-evident.
The primary source of time leakage was my habit of frequently checking emails and rushing to respond to incoming messages as soon as they appeared in my inbox. The second major time drain was attending numerous meetings, many of which weren’t essential. My days were so fragmented between emails and meetings that I had little time to accomplish anything substantial.
Once I identified the culprits, I brought more discipline to my daily routine. I shifted away from the compulsive always-on work style and blocked large segments of my daily calendar for important tasks. I minimized email interruption by turning off notifications for most of the day.
I also went on a meeting diet, attending only those I deemed essential. These adjustments helped me reclaim much of the time I’d been losing, without any noticeable downside.
I borrowed a page from my own playbook to solve my retirement’s time-crunch mystery. I kept detailed records of my activities for three weeks and then reviewed them. Unlike last time, I couldn’t pinpoint one or two factors draining my time. I was simply stretching myself too thin across multiple activities and goals.
To address this, I decided to experiment with a budgeting technique. A humble confession: I’ve never found success with conventional budgets, especially those requiring detailed categorization and tracking of every dollar spent. I admire those who have the patience to meticulously monitor their expenses—I’m just not one of them.
Instead, throughout my earning years, I adopted a reverse budget: I saved first and spent what was left. I applied this same technique to manage my time in retirement. I decided to allocate 50 hours a week for my personal use, and spend the rest on everything else.
Why 50 hours? My rough calculation went like this: First, I committed the weekends completely for family time. I estimated that my basic needs—things like nightly sleep and occasional naps, showers and hygiene, meals, routine chores and so on—took almost 14 hours each day. If that sounds like a lot, it’s because I prefer things slow and easy.
That left me 10 hours a day for five weekdays, or 50 hours a week, dedicated to my personal pursuits. To keep things simple, I decided to split this time evenly among my five different interests, spending roughly 10 hours a week on each:
1. Physical fitness. I exercise each day, but I don’t enjoy it. I dislike it so much that I spend nearly an hour each day mentally preparing myself to get started. The actual workout lasts barely 45 to 60 minutes. If you include a few minutes for cooling down, it turns into a two-hour task.
Despite my dislike of physical exercise, I take it seriously. I want to stay fit, or at least slow the deterioration of my physical abilities. Listening to podcasts during my workouts helps reduce the boredom. I also mix up my exercise between swimming at a local community club, walking outdoors and strength training. Regardless of the form of exercise, it’s often the least enjoyable two hours of my day.
2. Hobbies. I enjoy acquiring or honing skills that align with my hobbies. Currently, part of my hobby time goes to practicing the flute, at least when my wife and daughter aren’t home to complain about the occasional squeaky or off-tune notes.
I’m also learning Spanish. Sí, quiero aprender español para poder viajar a México y otros países de habla hispana con más confianza. Progress is slow but promising.
3. Social connections. I make a concerted effort to stay connected with people. This includes mentoring through our nonprofit to provide investment and financial education, catching up one-on-one with friends and former coworkers, giving informal music lessons to acquaintances, and so on. When I don’t feel like meeting anyone, I write online articles for audiences I care about.
4. Continuing education. I want to stay current on topics related to finance, economics, behavioral psychology and anything that catches my interest. Thanks to numerous sources such as Coursera, edX and MIT, there’s no shortage of online classes from reputed educators. If I’m not enrolled in a class, I’ll often read nonfiction.
5. Doing nothing. Finally, I reserve the remaining 10 hours a week for doing nothing, unless something unplanned comes up. I simply sit by the window with a pot of tea, look outside and let my mind wander.
My new schedule is already showing results. While my days are busy, I’m no longer overwhelmed with dozens of things that have little significance.
Sanjib Saha retired early from software engineering to dedicate more time to family and friends, pursue personal development and assist others as a money wellness mentor. Self-taught in investments, he passed the Series 65 licensing exam as a non-industry candidate. Sanjib is the president and cofounder of Dollar Mentor, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization offering free investment and financial education. Follow his nonprofit on LinkedIn, and check out Sanjib’s earlier articles.
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Thank you very much for the article! I found it very interesting and relevant, since I recently retired. I now struggle with making my time count. I even started using a time-tracking application to see where my time is going and it’s enlightening. I have a question for you, if you don’t mind: how much time do you spend watching television? I personally have always been anti-TV-watching to a point that we never had any TV channels and no cable at our house. The only TV my kids ever watched was rented videos/DVDs. But then came the internet and streaming, the kids grew up and moved out. The long story short – these days I end up spending around 3 hours a day watching TV. It’s mostly a combination of movies and YouTube Videos. It’s fun, but I feel it’s too much. How about you?
Hello! Thanks for sharing your experience. I occasionally watch TV, but not on a regular basis. My wife and I might watch a movie together on weekends, but it’s not very regular. We have a TV in the kitchen too and we sometimes keep the TV on (with a standup-up comedy, a talk-show, or something light) at dinner time, but don’t pay too much attention. Same thing for my occasional daytime naps – I leave the TV on with a documentary and quickly fall asleep. A single episode might take a month to finish :). That’s pretty much about it as far as “entertainment viewing” is concerned.
I also watch some of the video courses on TV, but I do not count them as TV watching because they serve a different purpose.
In the past, my wife and I used to watch TV several nights a week – watching a movie or an episode after dinner became almost a daily habit. However, we stopped doing it because of the side-effects: Eating snacks unnecessarily, not getting enough “quality” sleep, but more importantly, too much movie/series was destroying my love for reading fictions. We don’t do this anymore, though my wife watches a couple of series on her tab.
We’ve never had a TV in the bedroom. I think a bedroom TV increases TV viewing time.
Nice planning. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, SCao.
”3. Social connections. . . . . When I don’t feel like meeting anyone, I write online articles for audiences I care about.”
That’s the nicest thing anyone has said to me this week. Thank you.
🙂 Thank you OBX9397. Have a wonderful rest of the week.
This is great, especially as I’m in my final year before retirement. I had envisioned this year as a “victory lap” where I could teach classes I like for the last time, wind up other projects, say my goodbyes.
Instead—I’m really, really busy. It’s a combination of the day job, of other professional projects I took on that are still in progress, and of things outside of work that are creeping in.
I guess this is a compliment, but in various arenas of my life, people are asking me to do stuff because they’re aware I’ll be retired soon. Re-join the HOA board in our condo community. Take on another couple of volunteer roles at church. I have a couple of people pointedly asking me when exactly I’ll be retired because they’ve heard me sing in church and are recruiting for the choir. (I haven’t had the heart to say that I don’t like that style of music and wouldn’t want to be in the choir even if I had more time!)
I can see that between stuff other people want me to do and things I might want to do, I’m going to need to take charge or I’ll be overscheduled. That’s always been my danger zone, anyway. Thanks for the practical ideas!
Thanks, DrLefty. I also ended up stretching myself too thin in the initial months of my retirement, but now I’ve a better sense of my capacity and reduced my commitments.
The most valuable commodity we each own is time. Good article. There should be more like it as time exponentially increases in value as we age.
Thanks for your note, dsurr.
Sanjib – This is a very instructive article. I know I’m spending too much time reading articles about the upcoming elections (all of them, not just one) and the candidates. My logic is that the election will be over in three weeks and then I can return to my normal routine. But finding time to do “everything” in retirement is a very difficult task. I’d get more done if I didn’t need to sleep!
For me, the key to physical fitness is variety. I wrote this HD article last spring. I admit that I still mostly bike and work out at the Y, but knowing that there are so many other options helps keep me going.
My combined hobby and continuing education is woodworking. I’ve taken many woodworking classes since I retired four years ago, and I’m currently building Christmas presents for our grandchildren.
Thanks, Jeff. Your article was an excellent read. Thanks for sharing it.
Woodworking sounds like a lot of fun. I’m sure your grandkids would be thrilled with the wonderful, personal Christmas gifts, made from scratch at home with artistic creativity, expertise and love.
Very interesting article, Sanjib. I admire your disciplined approach. And congratulations on the award you won: NGPF Distinguished Educator Award – Dollar Mentor
During my working years I had a similar problem: My compulsive nature caused me to spend a big part of every day immediately responding to phone calls and emails. What finally worked for me when I needed a few continuous hours to prepare for trial, etc., was to leave the office and go to a university library in town and hunker down there. A bit of a hassle but it worked pretty well.
Thanks so much, Andrew.
I might try the library trick myself. There’s one close to our house and it’d be a good idea to go there once in a while and read without interruption.
Another great posting Sanjib!
Before we retired a friend of ours said “You know, once you retire it will take all morning to visit the post office.”
Turns out … he wasn’t really kidding. Things we used to get done quickly sure seem to take a whole lot more time.
Parkinson’s ‘law’ perhaps?
Thanks, Winston. The comment about taking all morning to visit the post office is so true. Taking things slow is surely one of the luxuries of retirement :).
I also don’t enjoy working out but I stumbled on something that helps me, so maybe it’ll help you. I’ve been working out pretty regularly for most of my adult life and it’s paid big dividends. Over the years I’ve noticed that the people that work out the hardest tend to burn out and quit after a while. Sometimes a few months, sometimes a few years, but burnout seemed their fate. That epiphany helped me realize that I needed to find the sweet spot of working out hard enough to get the benefit I wanted without making each workout a grind that eventually I’d avoid. I’m reminded of an old sports saying; You win championships on your bad days. So these days, whether it’s going to the gym or taking a hike, I don’t dread it as I know I won’t feel compelled to go all out, but rather I’ll dial it back and just go through the motions if that’s how I’m feeling that day. Yeah, it’s a mental trick, but it really helps get me off the couch. Good luck figuring out what works for you.
Thanks so much for the tip, OldITGuy. I’ve enrolled in a Gym this week with the hope that watching others doing it might keep my motivation up. Let’s see how it goes.
I also go to a gym. I’ve always been envious of folks who have the discipline to work out at home. But for whatever reason, I’ve always found it a little easier to work out at a gym (as contradictory as that sounds). One other little mental trick I use to help me get to the gym is I have a couple of podcasts I really enjoy. But I only allow myself to listen to them at the gym (usually on the treadmill). Stupid as it sounds, this morning when I downloaded some new episodes I realized I was looking forward to getting to the gym to listen to them. Yep, yet another mental trick to help me get off the couch. Again, good luck figuring out what works for you.
Good article, Sanjib. We all Have a tendency to make our lives too complicated. As Is to be expected we are unable to achieve as much as we would like because we invite way too many physical and mental distractions into our already stressed out lives. And our days can get away from us— If we let them.
You worked hard to simplify your life and accomplish more. No one could ever accuse you of being unmethodical. Good work.
Thanks a lot, Marjorie. Forcing some structures and achievable goals in my daily routine seems to be helping me so far, at least I don’t feel overwhelmed anymore and still get a sense of spending most of my days in a meaningful way.
Nice article. An essay in yesterday’s NY Times by one of my favorite authors, Ann Patchett, The Decision I Made 30 Years Ago That I Still Regret, is about how email has interfered with her life.
Thanks parkslope. I’ll check out the NYT essay.
Thanks for the summary. I was a little curious about this article yesterday when I saw the title but decided to skip it.
Wow. You’re taking this thing seriously Sanjib. The best I’ve been able to do is prioritize a couple of things and see that they get done, but otherwise it’s fairly unstructured. My time management could certainly stand improvement but so far hasn’t bothered me enough to do anything serious about it. I think it would be very difficult to build this kind of time budget when our location and what’s competing for time is always changing. If we’re ever settled in one place I suspect I’ll probably see it differently.
Thanks, Michael. I’m not good at getting anything done if my day is completely unstructured. Budgeting time for specific goals is certainly helping me.
On being efficient at work, my experience was very similar. My one man tax prep service had become more and more intense as my client count increased each year. Answering the phone and replying to email ate up hours of productive time. My solution was to silence my phone, sending all calls to voicemail, where my message promised a call-back by the end of the day or first thing in the morning. I also switched from a landline to a cell phone, which cut conversation time by enabling texts. Finally, I encouraged document drop-offs in lieu of a sit down appointment; I can process 3 average tax returns in the time 1 appointment eats up.
On being efficient in retirement….. I got to work on that one.
Thanks for sharing your own experience, Dan.
Sanjib, thanks for an interesting article. I recall a coworker who used to block out time on his calendar for important, but non-urgent, tasks. He called it “Get Stuff Done” time, and he guarded it by closing his office door and ignoring emails. It sounds like you have come up with a great solution. Enjoy.
Thank you, Rick. Good to hear from you.