Retirement mostly allows me to choose what I do when. No commuting times, not many scheduled meetings, few appointments. That's not to imply lack of schedule. One reason for a very successful last couple of years has been to assign times for certain activities. Up at the same time each morning. Treadmill as close to 7:50AM on scheduled days as I can get it. Big mug of water consumed every morning as soon as I go downstairs, which usually follows dental hygiene, then coffee goes into that mug with a splash of creamer. All goes to My Space where I select three priority activities for the day. Email follows, not before. While coffee brews and I sip water in the kitchen, I head outside to retrieve my wife's newspaper. I also wash some dishes. The mornings are subdivided into times for specific activities. Some of these assignments do not always serve me in the best way. It is convenient to take my blood pressure when I make coffee, before exercise. However, assessment of where my blood pressure ranges requires that it be taken at different hours, which I try to do. By 9AM, my Daily Task list has a few items crossed off. Other than treadmill, none of these activities are things I might make excuses not to do.
Deep work, focus with a timer, has not adapted to scheduling quite as well. Some hours link to creativity or perspective. In my working years, mornings generally found me more engaged than afternoons, though I did some of my best reflective work closer to quitting time. There may be a difference between my motivation to perform and what I accomplish. Some tasks require mental acuity, others require attention to routine.
I think my higher CNS centers do best after a second cup of morning coffee. I can compose new thoughts and express them in the best way. That 9-11AM window has very little structure. During that time, I should be typing, not shopping for groceries, and certainly not scrolling FB. That's time best suited to create something from a blank screen or page. Yet it has not acquired an inviolate protection of my schedule the way the scheduled treadmill efforts have.
In the afternoons, tend to read and respond. The Atlantic now has a section to invite reader comments after each article. So does eJewish Philanthropy and Moment Magazine. I guess their editors figured out that Twitter, where journalists prefer to interact, has repelled enough readers, myself among them, that they need to offer a more acceptable forum. I read and respond, mostly early afternoons. My thinking prowess seems a little diminished from its peak, but still adequate.
That mid-day segment, 11AM to 1PM seems something of an ebb for me. OLLI classes during the school year cluster during that time. When not engaged in classes, struggling to stay attentive, I gravitate to my activities that do not require much mindfulness. That's the time to go to the supermarket or scroll FB.
Late afternoon becomes another lull, a time for my mind to retreat. There are studies which show doctors are least attentive in those hours and make more faulty decisions than they do before lunch. I find myself struggling to express myself in an articulate way at that part of the daily cycle.
The evening restores an element of routine, though perhaps not the best routine. I make supper, one usually planned much earlier. I'm not very creative but don't have to be to boil some pasta or sautee some garden burgers. Then eat, PM medicine, and return to My Space, though this time surfing YouTube instead of actively engaged at my desk. It's not dead time. I choose videos that add to my knowledge. I often read the books I am tackling. But I do not engage in expressive, creative work in a meaningful way after supper, other than planning the activities for the following day and checking off what I did that day. I have a late-day routine, less rigid than my morning one, but there is a set time to shut down the laptop and phone. At the end of the day, I read some more, rehearse any Torah readings I have committed to performing in the near future, and recap what went well and what did not over the course of the day. Then lights out at 10PM unless my wife needs to keep them on to read.
I think there are parts of each day best suited to different tasks. Identifying that slots suit what activities has a lot of uncertainty. For jobholders, assignments determine them. I retirement I have control. It's still not clear if what I choose to do at different times enhances or undermines actual performance.
The routines at the beginning and end of each day have served me well.
No comments:
Post a Comment