Of distractions, structure and productivity

-

 So, we amble into the final "Being Retired" phase. If you've been following my previous blogs you will have shared with me my path from decision making, leaving work and then transitioning through feeling retired to the stage I think I may be in now - which is Being retired.

It's been a few weeks now - no idea how many without looking - one symptom of being retired I'm thinking. To be honest, completely surprisingly, I have not missed work at all. I expected to have "flashbacks" of loose ends or seasonal tasks - "did I get verification for that assessment?" "have I set up the discussion board for the module?" "I must make an appointment with..." but  nothing - no waking at 3am with a sudden urge to make a note of something, no sense of dread that I may have forgotten to do something vital.

Work is no longer providing a structure, stimulation or validation - I realise these must be coming from somewhere else now but I'm not sure I've totally bottomed  from where yet. As someone who previously thrived on deadlines, task management and organised time management I find I am surprised that I am enjoying having minimal restrictions on my time. Things are getting done - but in a much more organic way. I still set goals that I want to achieve each day/week but their completion is more ..... shall we say - fluid.


I still have productivity to my days, the focus at the moment has been making things, researching, writing, filming and editing for my new You Tube channel and I still find that for a few hours each day I am sitting at my computer doing these things, but it feels like the _best_ of my old role where we were able to be creative, forward thinking and proactive rather than reactive, fire fighting or engaged in enforced admin tasks. 

The Science Bit:

This suggests that I am engaging in activities (occupations) that have positive meaning and value for me. If I were to break this down as an occupational therapist I would say that the things I am doing at the moment have elements of want to and need to do. They appeal to my need to read and write about things which I am interested in, and I am also developing skills and ability in these areas - so striving for mastery and control and expanding my developmental structure. There is also a sense of obligation in the background - feeling obliged or that I "have to" provide a vlog once a week to people who have subscribed to my channel. These are minimal numbers at the moment -  however I know I need to keep an eye on this obligation as from previous experience of creating for others means that my enjoyment of the occupation often wanes.



However, there is a down side to all of this (although may not be too detrimental) and that is that there are limited external drivers to work on or complete a task, so I find my tendency for distraction more readily available and I seem to spend a lot of time wandering from room to room and going up and down stairs. 

To illustrate what I mean here is a portion of my day yesterday (possibly overall about 4 hours worth).

#1 start by remembering I need to get my wooden witch out of the summer house (shed!) as a prop for filming my vlog

#2 Enter summer house (shed!) and notice other things stored in there that could do with being brought into the house before the winter sets in and they get damp

#3 oooh, there's my model vardo.... I remember I had a few miniature books in there which would go well with a project I am doing for Christmas. Open it up - no books, hmmmm where are they?

#4 Go look for books in bedroom cupboard. Find my blood sugar monitor which I think would be useful to monitor for a while as I have not been too good with my diet over lockdown. Needs batteries replacing

#5 Find and replace batteries but realise testing strips out of date. Need to order more from Amazon

#6 Get phone to place order and get distracted by social media

#7 In the process of finding batteries I notice there are a number of string lights that have got tangled that would be useful as props for my vlog. Untangle lights

#8 One set of lights is cotton balls which are becoming unravelled and need glueing

#9 Go downstairs to get glue. Notice in cupboard with glue are some drill bits I ordered for another project. Ooo let's have a go at that - need to find drill! Find drill but drill bits not correct - shelf this idea

#10. In process of #9 spot slate coasters bought for another project to have a go at painting (😱) in a "How hard can it be" moment of madness. Cadge paints off husband and dig out brushes I'd bought as a stocking filler for him. I make a start - apparently I am hurting Steve's artistic sensibilities so he confiscates this from me.

#11 Am hungry, decided to make cauliflower and stilton soup. Get distracted by christmas film on tv while eating soup so watch to the end

#12 Glue cotton light balls

#13 Still not found miniature books so look in another cupboard, nothing there either - give up search for books

#14 Clean the things brought in from the summer house (shed!) and put them in the conservatory for sorting "later"

#15 Order blood sugar monitor strips

#16 Clean wooden witch (see #1 that started the whole process nearly 4 hours ago)


So, I am able to complete tasks - but organically. My need for control is being tested and I quite like it. I am missing connections and marker events - coffee with work mates, catching up at the beginning of team meetings - but social media does allow some of this I guess.

The next thing that will test me will be the financial changes. I believe I have done what I can so far to mitigate some of these, with better deals for things like insurance and wifi etc. Lockdown/COVID restrictions are  possibly giving a false impression of spending habits at the moment, but this will all be part of the transition. I am not feeling quite so anxious about this as previously and have had a lot of reassurance from retired friends who say I will be OK.

Watch this space......

Please feel free to go over the my YouTube channel - I post a video about once a week, If you subscribe you should get notifications as new videos are uploaded.

If you are interested in reading the blogs taking me through the full journey please see the links here:

Post 1: Hurtling gently towards retirement

https://ichabodsday.blogspot.com/2020/08/hurtling-gently-towards-retirement.html

Post 2: The final countdown

https://ichabodsday.blogspot.com/2020/09/its-final-countdown.html

Post 3: Start where you are and change the ending

https://ichabodsday.blogspot.com/2020/10/start-where-you-are-and-change-ending.html

Post 4: Of distractions, structure and productivity

https://ichabodsday.blogspot.com/2020/10/of-distractions-structure-and.html

Post 5: Of Freedom, Dame Maggie and knowing that leggings are the work of Satan

https://ichabodsday.blogspot.com/2020/11/of-freedom-dame-maggie-and-knowing-that.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Abseiling santa, sunshine and snow....

-
Image
Just had to share a rather bizarre experience that happened this weekend - decided to visit Botany Bay for a bit or browsing- and guess what - on August Bank Holiday Saturday it was their first day of Christmas!! We were greeted by a small choir of carol singers dressed in Mrs Santa costumes and bedecked with bells and collection buckets. Then, whilst waiting at one of the tills to pay for purchases the PA system came to life with a customer announcement - "Santa will be abseiling down the front of the building in 5 minutes - anyoine wishing to watch santa abseil down the building should go outside now" - too surreal!!! Anyway - too good an opportunity to miss - so went outside - to fake snow billowing from the top of the building, more carol singing and of course santa abseiling. Ah well, another Bank Holiday weekend in Britain!!!
Read more

Eurovision!!!

-
Image
Well, the annual event is almost upon us once again - 24th May 2008. The Eurovision Song contest is one of the highlights of my year. Call me "sad" if you must, but I don't believe I have missed a contest since I was a small child when my parents would put myself, my brother and sister to bed early in the evening (6 pm-ish) in order for us to have a nap before being woken up to watch the whole of the contest. It seemed so exciting to be up so late and watching a spectacle - as it seemed to me at the time. And we used to win sometimes in the good old days ! In latter years I have held Eurovision parties of my own where guests are expected to vote and play drinking games and shout at the voting of the partisan countries who always vote for their neighbours etc. It seems that there are few friends of the UK left. It will soon be time to get out the international buffet menu , dust down the flags and get ready to have an evening of song, sequins and sycophancy!! Good luc
Read more

Of time, marker events and arriving at work on a lilo

-
Image
"Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once" -  ( attributed to either Mark Twain or Einstein but neither are well supported). As I slip easily into my 6th month of retirement I have found myself spending far too much "time"  thinking about time as a concept. My days are currently a mix of  time dragging (not helped by current lock down for COVID19),  time standing still - engaging in activities/occupations that enable me to lose all track of time and  time speeding by - not having segments imposed by other's timetables (teaching, meetings, meal times, getting up and going to bed etc means I have very few marker events in a day).  Therefore I'm finding that measuring time in retirement becomes a little different. Exploring further I fell down the rabbit hole on the space/time continuum. From The Big Bang to the Big Crunch theories. Einstein once stated that time is an illusion made up of human memories and that in fact everything does happen al
Read more