A schedule for success

I retired from my regular paid work on 11 December 2019. The most common question was how would I fill my time. It surprised me because the challenge really is how would I get everything done?

Last year I dropped from .8 workload to a .4 workload. That gave me more time, but ironically I filled it and did less on my priority (of writing, of working through my journals). In fact I stopped writing my blog altogether.

So, it is not the amount of time (I know, we all have the same 24 hours in a day) or perceived spare or free time, but how we utilise it.

I had an insight when I read Jeffrey Archer’s prison diaries. He was disciplined to write for 2 hours, then take a break of 2 hours, write again for 2 and break again for 2, with one final 2 hours writing. This was his normal routine, before he went to prison. The schedule gives structure, and the breaks give refreshment. He created a similar schedule while in prison and achieved three books.

Retirement is not a prison full of imposed schedules but more the opposite of full freedom. This year, my first year of retirement from paid employment, I am using Jeffrey Archer’s schedule of 2 x 2 blocks to write. Watch this space. I don’t anticipate a novel completed in a few weeks, but I do expect to create regular blogs from my journals.