I felt lost when I retired. I needed a schedule to feel like me.

• After receiving a diagnosis of chronic pulmonary insufficiency, I faced an unexpected early retirement.
• Despite the financial preparation, I fought emotionally with the transition and the change of rhythm.
• Establishing a new routine and maintaining a schedule helped me adapt and find a goal.

I left the air conditioning in my Mazda when I visited an emergency room to meet a doctor. As director of hospital business development, I called medical staff, requiring a dozen or more trips in and out of my car every day. Summer in the Ohio river valley has sticky and relentless humidity from May to early October. But for me, it was as usual, I liked being busy.

At 59, I was diagnosed with chronic pulmonary insufficiency, which meant that I needed an oxygen tank with me at any time. My breathing was put to the heat in the heat while I was dragging a bulky cylinder of 10 pounds, as well as my bag and my marketing equipment to make appointments. RetirementOnce a fantasy far in the future has become an imminent reality.

Suddenly, my life was about to be very different. More driving at an hour away to attend rounds of large hospitals in 7 in the morning. More submarines when a sports bra would do. Instead, I would appreciate the coffee dates in Gogo with Gal friends and yoga pants would replace the relaxed business looks. That’s what I thought I had in front of me.

Finance are not the only things you need to think about before retiring

In financial security, my husband and I went to a financial planner For a medico-legal level analysis, I joked a “financial colonoscopy”. Our finances were solid, but I did not consider much beyond the dollars we would need In the coming years

By thinking, I realize now that the world is like one of these sidewalks in the airport. Go down and the sidewalk continues to move. My reaction to freedom surprised me because I thought I was ready for retirement. Financially, I was ready; Emotionally, I was not.

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I thought I would feel carefree

At 60, I jumped in an active but random social life to catch up with the type of freedom that I had not lived from high school. But only my world had changed. Most of my friends were still working and did not have much flexibility to meet for noon coffee.

A canyon spreads between what I thought that retirement would be and the reality I lived. I did not succeed in prioritize or plan my time. Going from an eventful management work to a blank slate was shocking. I have read retirement gurus articles, but most of them focused on finance, not on goal and meaning.

I knew that my lifestyle of a leave of a faire did not work for me. I felt disengaged from the world and not being part of anything. I had not answered three important questions. What are my retirement priorities? How will I spend my time? What if something unexpected happens?

It took a while to understand my priorities

Free time. I did not know what it did, not having much in four decades, with the exception of short layoffs and medical leave. After all, five weeks of maternity leave were not a relaxing vacation.

My husband and I had always planned Travel more to retirement And funds designated for specific adventures that we dreamed of like going to Australia. Before retirement, we have traveled several times a year and even made seven European trips in their fifties. But now there would be no one -month trip on the ground under the moment my husband retired. My portable oxygen concentrator could not last on such a long flight.

I slowly started to understand my new priorities, those that were important to me. No meetings early in the morning. Do not adjust an alarm. See our son as much as possible. Take advantage of coffee dates with friends. Volunteer for my church and my community, but not to demand leadership roles. Read everything I could get my hands.

Slowly, I formed a schedule

Once I determined my prioritiesMy days have been set up. Without alarm, I usually wake up between 8 and 10 am, I drink coffee, I catch up with newspapers and magazines and I get up on the spelling game “The New York Times”.

I volunteered to do work that I could do at a distance both for my church and for several civic organizations. I took a few minutes from zoom meetings (a job that no one really wants) and I looked for grants.

And I bought a new portable air concentrator with enough battery so that I can visit our son at DC without complications.

An hour or two before bedtime is reserved for reading every night. I haven’t read as much for years, and a secondary advantage is that I learn and improve my brain.

My schedule puts me to the ground

The universe failed us again when my husband received a diagnosis of a serious illness in February 2024. No safeguard plan could have prepares us for the emotional assessment that his diagnosis had on us. However, my daily routine comforts me and provides a loose plan.

During the four decades of my career, I hung on to any popular time management system. I have religiously used a paper franklin planner, a BlackberryAnd finally a smartphone. The circumstances confused the image to come in our crystal ball, but know what I do this week or even today helps. I always depend on my phone, using Google Calendar and the Notes Application for everything, TCM movies, I want to watch to recall medication recharges. And I still have a lot of time for the late and lazy mornings that I appreciate and appreciates now.