We’ve been looking at the times for everything under the heavens - planting and uprooting, tearing down and building, weeping and laughing. Today we’ll consider how we will restructure our time, our days, for as Annie Dillard said, in The Writing Life, “How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives.”
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens…He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11
Yes, in retrospect we see the times that we’ve had to build, weep, plant, laugh, tear down, but how did that play out in our day to day lives? What are our days now building for the future? Most of us will live decades after we retire, so it’s worth some thought as we approach retirement.
A Harvard Business Review article, “How Retirement Changes Your Identity,” with Professor Teresa Amabile gave me terminology for two major adjustments that retirees must make: life restructuring and identity bridging.
Let’s talk about life restructuring. (We’ll take up identity bridging in a few weeks.)
The thought of having your days to yourself, largely unstructured, for most of us is a welcome change from being a slave to a schedule. For the first weeks or months of retirement, as you’re resting, taking a sabbatical, it’s fine to leave your life unstructured, but beware, your unstructured life may become your new structure.
The Bible tells us little about the daily lives of the patriarchs or other major characters. What did Abraham, Moses or David do on a daily basis? We know Daniel prayed three times a day and ended up in a lion’s den because of it. We have the Psalms; a record of David’s and others’ prayer lives. Jesus and his disciples walked through many places in the gospels, but what they did every day is anyone’s guess.
One incident in Moses’s life is telling. After leading the Israelites out of Egypt while they were in the desert, Moses’s father-in-law came to visit. He was impressed with what God had done for the Israelites, but when Moses sat down in the morning to swarms of people wanting him to solve their problems, Jethro was appalled.
When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?” Exodus 18:14
It probably didn’t start out this way. I imagine a few people going to Moses for answers to their problems, and thankful for wise resolutions, they told others, who told others, and soon Moses had more than he could handle.
He clearly needed to restructure his days, so on his fathers-in-law’s advice objective advice he appointed well qualified godly men over thousands, hundreds and fifties, and tens to handle the less difficult cases. He also taught the people what God had taught him. I’m sure Moses was much more effective after that adjustment.
As we’ve restructured our days, these questions have been helpful:
What are your priorities? One of our priorities is relationships, especially with family, so much of our time is invested in entertaining, visiting, or helping. We’ve scheduled a bi-monthly family dinner at our house, which is time well spent, and we stay open to opportunities to connect with friends.
Do you desire to plant or build anything new? I am building a writing career, slowly but surely, and I’m guessing Dan will want to plant a new effort, but he doesn’t yet know what it will be yet. Stay tuned.
Which habits should stay and which should go? At this point in our lives, we have well established habits; some good and others, not so much. In restructuring our days, we can take a look at our habits, decide which ones we’ll hang on to and which ones we will attempt to shed.
Dan, my husband, retired about a month ago, and he is taking a sabbatical, but he still has some structure to his days. He works out, takes a bike ride, or runs in the morning, makes a cup of coffee and reads the Bible and/or a devotion and the paper. He’s got a list of minor projects around the house that he’s crossing off daily, but he doesn’t spend more than an hour or two on any of them. He’s also been writing stories for our grandkids, which is an excellent use of time. That leaves quite a lot of unstructured time, which is fine with him. He’s quite intentional about his lack of structure. There will be a time, however, when he’ll introduce more structure.
I also workout every morning, make a cup of tea, and read my Bible, but then my days take off. I plan my schedule a week at a time, plugging in commitments for work, one day with my daughter and her kids, to which Dan can now accompany me, spending time with my parents, upcoming writing deadlines, social engagements, entertaining, and weekly tasks, like grocery shopping. My days fill up.
On nice summer evenings, we might sit on the deck with a beer or a glass of wine before dinner, chatting, reading, watching for hummingbirds, or just relaxing. The TV doesn’t get turned on until 8 or 9 in the evening, when our brains and bodies are done for the day.
That’s a brief summary of the structure of our days - what about yours?
Have you restructured your days? If so, how? If you haven’t retired yet, have you thought about how you will restructure your time?
Photo by Karla Hernandez on Unsplash
Judy, I left a comment to this effect on another of your posts just now (catching up on reading) but it fits better here - "A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days." Annie Dillard. My Day Planner is the net that keeps my life organized, and I find it's more important now than when I was working FT and knew exactly where I had to be M-F 8-5.
Every day presents an opportunity to restructure. While I get bored and anxious with routines, I’m coming to realize they only take up a little time and do offer some comfort in the consistency; I have the rest of the day to make it up as a I go!