Day 6 — Are solitude and sociability polar opposites? When my husband left for his annual winter junket I wrote about looking forward to three weeks alone. In the past few days a major storm left me housebound with no choice but solitude. It was quite lovely but by this weekend I needed to spend […]
Time for you
21 Days Without my Husband — A Winter Storm Approaches
Day 3 without my husband — I’m settling-in to await arrival of the biggest snow storm to hit the Greater Toronto Area in many years. Canadians stay aware of the weather at all times — especially during winter when storms can get dangerous. Today Environment Canada issued a storm warning that predicts 20 – 30 centimeters of […]
21 Days Without my Husband — Feeling the Freedom
Day 2 — I’m feeling the freedom! I woke up to bright blue skies. A good dose of February sunshine always cheers me. Perhaps it’s my Saskatchewan roots where the sun shines every day of the winter even when it’s freezing cold. It felt a bit strange not to chat with my husband this morning. […]
21 Days Without My Husband — Day 1
Today my husband left for his annual vacation junket to Trinidad — without me. I declined the invitation to travel with him — as I do every year. Most people gasp when they hear this. They ask why I don’t go with him. They admonish me for missing the carnival festivities on the island. They are […]
How shovelling wood chips gives a new perspective on retirement
With retirement comes the gift of time and the capacity to use time in your own way. You are free to eat when you want to eat, sleep when you want to sleep, play at new hobbies, and yes, manage those pesky tasks that relate to daily living. Sometimes, though, you need to ‘mix things […]
Indulgence — Experiencing a mini-retreat
Last week I wrote about retreats and mused about the many benefits of such experiences. I also postulated that mini-retreats during retirement would bring many benefits. Little did I know that I was actually going to experience a mini-retreat within days of writing that post. The seeds were sown last winter when I suggested to […]
Too Many Choices –Time Management Decisions in Retirement
‘”Too much to do — too little time” Yesterday, in the post-exercise coffee shop conversation at the gym several women lamented about how busy they were. They complained that their retirement schedules were as over-crowded as work schedules had been. Everyone struggled to find enough time for the gym, for grand-children, for hobbies, for travel, […]
Why Overcoming the Habit of Multi-tasking Creates a Successful Retirement
Did you spend most of your career juggling several priorities? Was it commonplace to deal with too many demands — work/home; personal/career? Did you feel inundated with responsibilities and requests? Did you wish for more hours in the day to complete tasks? In the last few years of my working life, I could answer ‘yes’ […]
Ignore Retirement Advice — Find your own path
There’s endless advice available to people who are retired or about to retire. Newspapers, magazines, talk shows, financial advisors, personal coaches, family, friends, books and blogs — including postworksavvy — offer counsel. There is advice on where to live, how to live, how to spend your money (or keep it), and how to spend your time. […]
What? Stress in Retirement?
As I was preparing to retire, I believed that leaving the world of work and its associated career demands meant that I would leave stress behind. Not so. Postworksavvy has discovered that retirement brings its own sources of stress. Retirement life decisions demand managerial skills similar to those used at work. Setting priorities, controlling finances, […]
