Organizing Every Day

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When I ended my formal career a few years ago, I realized that the way I organized my days would change significantly. The big chunk that was the 40+ hour work week plus commute time (sometimes adding 10+ hours to the work week) was not going to be the big rock that I needed to organize around. There is a lot more freedom in my post-career days.

I choose to have a few rhythms. From the very beginning, I’ve included a daily blog post, some journal writing, and some reading. The goals have changed over time and sometimes become minimized when there is an overwhelming amount of other activity (like traveling). I’ve added a daily Zentangle in the past year or so. The only weekly rhythm that I’ve retained is grocery shopping; I do it on a weekday morning rather than a weekend morning like I did when I was in the thick of my career.

Some things I’ve kept from my career days.

  • I still have a calendar – mostly for things that are away from home. And I share it with my family just like I used to share my work calendar with my staff. The calendar is not as full….and everything on it is something I want to do! Those activities are easy to plan around….they are the only things that have to occur at a particular date and time!
  • There are also projects that I organize for myself. Right now I am in the thick of scanning our old slides from the 1970s and 1980s. It is quite a project and will probably take me months. But I’m the one that determines how fast it proceeds. I usually set a goal for my projects (like hours per day) and then just finish them at that pace. I’ll do another blog post with more on my scanning project in a week or so.
  • I’ve continued my early mornings. Just because I don’t have to get up and get to work does not mean that I am not up before 6 AM these days….and without the aid of the alarm clock that made sure I was up at exactly the same time every work day morning! The early morning is my favorite time to get off to a fast start on whatever is in store for the day.

Hawaiian Vacation Lesson Learned

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To wrap up the posts about my trip in December to Hawaii – I am noting some lessons learned from the trip --- what did I learn from this trip that I will apply to trips in the future:

Have a contingency for much longer flights than planned. This could include a change of clothes and must-have toiletries in carry-on luggage, medications and refillable water bottle, and healthy snacks. I’ve discovered that peppermint lifesavers help me feel better even when I am very tired. Most of my healthy snacks are pita bread wedges, veggies (celery, carrots, cucumber), fruit (apple, pear), nuts, and protein bars.

Planning a trip to a place you’ve never been before is best done with someone that has been there before…and recently. The Hawaii trip was enhanced by my daughter’s previous trip to some of the same places on a geology field trip. It helped that she was there with us too.

Look at brochures for local attractions. We saw the 2400 Fahrenheit brochure in our vacation rental; it was about a mile away! Sometimes the unplanned is icing on top for a vacation.

Seek out local food. The foods with purple sweet potato were the theme for this trip for me: pie and pastries. And I enjoyed eating at the Kona Brewing company twice! I followed my daughter’s suggestion and tried the Black Sand Island Porter.

Maximize variety. There were so many ‘high points’ for this vacation: water falls, helicopter, telescopes, volcanos, tropical forest, unusual sand, geology…..overall the variety and ‘first time’ aspect of so much of that variety is what made the trip to Hawaii so spectacular.

Avoid overeating. We feel better when we eat out less and we eat less when we prepare it ourselves! In Hawaii we ate the majority of our meals at the vacation rental (that had a full kitchen) or as picnics that we prepared and took with us for our meal at mid-day. Over the past few years, we’ve done this more frequently and now we have made it our ‘normal.’

Don’t leave valuables in the car. We didn’t have anything stolen but some fellow tourists did at one of the state parks. That kind of thing can ruin a vacation. Sometimes it is hard to not have valuables in the car. On the day we left we had to pack the car and leave our vacation rental by 11 AM and we didn’t need to be at the airport for many hours….so everything was in the car. Most of the places we went were places where there were more people around – where someone breaking into a car would be noticeable…maybe.

Take time to savor the place – while you are there and when you get back. I tried to review my pictures each evening while I was in Hawaii and then writing the blog posts was a good way to enjoy what we did all over again.

Previous Hawaii Posts: