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Time Management – Its Importance During Second Innings of Life

The importance of time management for an organization as well as for an individual is known to everyone. We generally talk about the importance of time management for an individual during student and working life. But time management is equally important for a person during post retirement life.

When we talk about retirement, we mean retirement from job not from life. A person can have dreams even after retirement. Retirement is an opportunity to explore yourself and to fully concentrate on fulfilling your dreams. You can set new goals and make your post retirement life meaningful. A person can even change the course of life and reach to a new height of success during the second innings of life. Colonel Harland Sanders at the age of 62 founded Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), fast-food chains which expanded internationally having more than 25,000 restaurants in over 145 countries and territories around the World.

    Without time management it is not possible to fulfil your dreams after retirement. Without it, it is even not possible to make your post retirement life simple, healthy and peaceful. Time management ensures fulfilling your dreams within targeted dates. It also ensures the continuity of your daily routine activities which are essential for maintaining your physical, mental and spiritual health. You may find articles on maintaining physical, mental and spiritual health in this blog.

     After the age of 60 one has on an average 15 years of active life. Therefore, there is a need for time management for achieving goals during one’s active life. Time management during post retirement life needed to be done on daily basis, short- term basis, medium-term basis and long-term basis. Before that one need to make an exhaustive list of desires to be fulfilled during post retirement life. After that one need to identify the desires to be fulfilled on daily basis, short-term basis, medium-term basis and long-term basis and accordingly time management has to be done.

       Time Management for fulfilling long-term desires: During post-retirement stage, one’s long term should be for a maximum period of five years. It is important to identity the desires or goals that can be achieved in long term. For example, if your desire is for having leisure tour abroad and you need to arrange resources for that purpose then you can treat it as your long-term goal. If you have sufficient resources for the same then you can plan it for short-term. After identifying your long-term desires set goals with deadlines for its achievement. Please remember that without deadlines your desires will remain in your dream and will never become reality. Merely setting goals and its deadlines are not sufficient. You need to make desired action plans for achieving your goals and to continuously following it up. Action plans needs to be monitored and follow up on daily basis as well as on weekly basis. It needs to be reviewed at quarterly interval. Allocate certain fixed time in a day for your desired action plans for which you need to do time management on daily basis though your goal is to be achieved in long term. Please remember that even for your long-term goal your activity should be on daily basis.

       Time Management for fulfilling Medium-term desires: You may have certain desires which you need to fulfil within a year or two. For such medium-term desires you need to set goals with its deadlines to be achieved within a year or two. Make desired action plans for achieving your goals within its deadlines and have continuous follow up on daily and weekly basis. Have a review of your action plans on monthly basis.

     Time Management for fulfilling Short-term desires: There may be certain desires which you want to fulfill within a month or quarter. As discussed earlier you have to set goals with deadlines and make desired action plans for fulfilling your short-term desires. Continuous follow up of action plans on daily basis with its review on weekly basis is required.

     Time Management for fulfilling Daily desires: You might have decided before retirement the activities and hobbies to be pursued after retirement. If you have decided your hobbies then it need to be cultured on daily basis. For example, if you have decided to do gardening then you need to do it daily on regular basis for which you have to allocate certain time. To keep yourself healthy you may have to do certain light exercises including morning walk for which you have to allocate certain time. For fulfilling your short-term, medium-term and long-term desires you need to allocate certain time every day for implementing its action plans for fulfilling those desires. You have to arrive at the total time needed daily for your desired activities. Please remember that in addition to time allocated for such activities you need time for fulfilling your biological requirements like sleep, rest and leisure, taking meals, etc. If time is not sufficient then you need to prioritize your activities.

          Time management is important not only during working life but also equally important during post-retirement life. Without time management one cannot fulfil one’s dream. Procrastination is the biggest barrier in initiating action to achieve goals which can be overcome by proper time management and continuous follow up of action plans. Many time we fail to fulfil our desires because of interruptions and distractions. Most of the interruptions and distractions are within our control and can be managed with proper time management techniques like bunching of interruptions, having quiet time for increased focus on activities and goals.

       Lack of time management is found more during post retirement life of a person because of absence of Boss. Since we are habituated to be disciplined by parents and teachers during student life and by Boss during working life, it becomes very difficult for us to be self-disciplined. This is the biggest challenge for a person to have time management for achieving goals during post retirement life.

       Be your own Boss and be accountable to yourself is the only way to be self-disciplined during post retirement life. This will lead you to fulfill your dreams and may enable you to reach a new height of success during post retirement life. Let us prove that retirement is not an end but a new beginning of life.

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Post Retirement Life - Various Stages and Challenges

Life after retirement goes through the following four stages. (i) Honeymoon stage

(ii) Active stage

(iii)Disenchantment stage

(iv)Stability stage

Let us discuss the challenges that a retiree faces during various stages and how to face those challenges in subsequent paragraphs.

2. Honeymoon stage: This stage starts just after the retirement when a retiree is much excited about his or her retirement and is more excited to lead a free life when there will not be any binding to go to office. At this stage a retiree is having much expectation from post retirement life as similar to a person joining as a fresher in new job. At this stage one has lot of dreams and expectations from post retirement life. Investment of retirement corpus are made to generate a stable source of passive income and one freely spend time with spouse and friends. Planning for vacations and tours, meeting with relatives and friends, pursuing hobbies, etc., are made at this stage. Many retirees plan for pursuing new hobbies and activities. The excitement is maximum at this stage.

3. Active Stage: Honeymoon stage lasts for 2-3 months and thereafter active stage starts. At this stage a retiree is very enthusiastic to implement the decisions taken during honeymoon stage. A person starts doing activities planned during honeymoon stage. A person starts pursuing both old and new hobbies at this stage. Maximum tours and travels are planned during this stage. Active stage lasts for 2-10 years depending on the continuity of a person's enthusiasm and energy level. Period of this stage varies from person to person depending on various factors as described hereunder.

3.1 Planning too many activities: Many persons planned too many activities during honeymoon stage out of over enthusiasm. Later on, they find it difficult to pursue all those activities planned by them. Activities and hobbies to be selected should be of one's liking and should be implementable on consistent basis. It is better to select few activities and hobbies initially and thereafter to be reviewed periodically to assess its implement ability on consistent basis. Based on one's own review one may either reduce or increase the number of activities to be pursued.

3.2 Distractions: We are not able to consistently pursue our selected hobbies and activities due to distractions and lack of discipline. Unnecessary thoughts and fears act as distractions. Spending more time in social media is a major distraction. Spending time in social media needed to be optimized. If you are serious about your hobbies, then make a daily schedule for your hobbies and activities and allocate reasonable time for each hobby and activity. Make it a point to keep yourself away from social media and electronic gazette during your scheduled time for activities. This will create self-discipline with increased focus on your hobbies and activities. In addition, have milestones for the achievement of your goal. Milestones will ensure your movement towards the goal.

3.3 Loss of Enthusiasm: Loss of enthusiasm is another factor reducing active life after retirement. Maintenance and sustenance of enthusiasm can enhance the period of active stage after retirement. Enthusiasm vanishes rapidly if activities were not planned on realistic basis during honeymoon stage. Loss of enthusiasm is due to inability to pursue hobbies or activities and also due to unfulfilled desires. Make it a point to have daily activities moving towards fulfilling your unfulfilled desires. Listening to music while relaxing and reading good motivational books on daily basis will help in keeping you enthusiastic. I would like to recommend the book " Finish What You Start " written by Peter Hollins.

3.4 Poor Time Management: Poor time management is another reason for inability to pursue the decided activities and hobbies on a consistent basis. Many persons are of the opinion that time management is having its importance in working life only. Time management is having its importance in every stage of our life including post retirement life. Time management is most important during post retirement life because our remaining active life is limited and gradually reducing after each passing day.

4. Disenchantment Stage: At this stage, a retired person is less excited about post retirement life. There is a feeling of boredom and loneliness. A person starts feeling useless. This may be due to several health challenges or frustration crept in due to problems in interpersonal relationship with near and dears or it may be due to non-fulfilment of desires which a person decided to fulfil after retirement. There may be several reasons for a retired person to come to this stage. There are persons directly moving from active stage to stability stage without going through disenchantment stage. To come out from this stage a person needs to identify the reasons for entering to this stage. If it is due to health challenge because of old age-related diseases then one need to accept it as natural and continue its treatment. Focus may be shifted to other interesting things like hobbies, listening to music, reading interesting books, cherishing old good memories in life, etc. If it is because of frustration crept in due to problems in interpersonal relationship with near and dear then one need to identify the reasons and accordingly sort it out with. If despite your sincere efforts you are not able to improve relationship then it is better to simply forgive and forget. I have already discussed the issues on interpersonal relationship in my previous post 'Interpersonal Relationship During Post Retirement Life - Challenges and Remedies' the link of which is given below.

https://post-retirementlife.blogspot.com/2022/08/interpersonal-relationship-during-post.html

One important thing should be kept in mind that a person's life is always useful irrespective of age and health condition. Therefore, never feel useless. If you can lead your retirement life with this attitude then you will never pass through this stage of post retirement life.

5. Stability Stage: Retirees are content and satisfied with their retirement life at this stage. This stage generally starts after 10-15 years of retirement day. Retirees are settled into their retirement lifestyle doing the things of their liking. They prefer to make their life simple and relaxing at this stage. Those retirees who successfully pursued their hobbies and carried out their planned activities for achieving their unfulfilled desires are satisfied with their retirement life and they come to this stability stage of retirement and remain in this stage till the end of their life.

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Second Innings of Life