Automatic countdowns to early retirement?

[steelyman]

I installed this little app on my iTouch a few months ago that has one purpose: to count down the days until some future date. Of course, the reason I did that was to track how many days I actually had left before sayonara.

I'm not sure whether doing that is such a great idea, as a) I check it daily, and b) it makes me a little antsy/impatient.

Anyone else have this experience?

p.s. the app is free and called Big Day Lite. I have no complaints about it, just my frequent use of it!

 

[W2R]

About ten years ago I wrote a routine in Excel to do that for me (if I input the days left in the month), and I checked it every morning starting at around 2600 or so (give or take a couple of hundred days).
The number of days was output in big red numbers, like this: 365

I liked doing it. I didn't think it made me impatient at all. But, as they say on the internet, YMMV

 

[Arnie]

Seems natural to me to want to know how many days are remaining until the big event. Take Advent calendars for example.

 

[Midpack]

I installed this little app on my iTouch a few months ago that has one purpose: to count down the days until some future date. Of course, the reason I did that was to track how many days I actually had left before sayonara.

I put task/reminders in Outlook at work to tell me when I hit 100, 75, 50, 25 work days left. I'm at presently about 60 work days left. I wouldn't want to see it daily, too much of a distraction, YMMV.

 

[target2019]

My Excel timesheet at work counts to 62, and to 66,4. I get a nice readout in days, weeks, and years. I'm getting the iphone app mentioned. Should really impress the younger set.

 

[Sarah in SC]

I used Big Day Lite to countdown the days until I finished school last year. Talk about checking it every day!!!!
I like using all sorts of countdowns, usually to fun stuff like festivals. But my Big Day Lite one for the end of school was more like an obsession.

 

[growing_older]

I had a big countdown, but some bad market years kind of made it not work out for me. Maybe I'll have to start a new one, since my old one expired with me still not FIRE.

 

[steelyman]

Seems natural to me to want to know how many days are remaining until the big event. Take Advent calendars for example.

Good point. I'd be getting antsy whether I had a countdown app or not. So I'll go ahead and keep checking it.

 

[Blackwoodt]

I have a application on my computer that clicks down the time in months, days, hours and seconds, along with a countdown clock on my actual desk counting down in days, hours, and minutes. Then if I'm not at work, I can look at my countdown clock at home, or the countdown app on my Droid phone.

Think I'm a little excited about retiring in 512 days, 14 hours, 13 minutes, and 16.2 seconds?

 

[WB52]

Awesome! Thanks for the suggestion. I just installed Big Day Lite on the i-Pad. Maybe it will replace the yellow sticky note that I have in my mega-corp cube.

 

[steelyman]

I just noticed that Big Day Lite keeps counting after the big day is reached. Except the little label on the digits changes from "Days Until..." to "Days Since...". So I guess it goes from a countdown to a countup app! Perfect for obssessive types who are curious about how many days they've been retired - any of those around here? ;-)

 

[Amethyst]

I use Excel's "days-left" function to tell me how many work days (M-F) are left. It lets you input holidays, vacations, etc. for a true reading.

Truthfully, though, I tend to count-down by the month. Months are not all the same! Months containing holidays and vacation go so much faster, as do months ending in something dreaded, such as dental work.

Amethyst

 

[Nords]

So I guess it goes from a countdown to a countup app! Perfect for obssessive types who are curious about how many days they've been retired - any of those around here? ;-)

That sounds like running up the score after the buzzer has sounded.

Counting down the days seems pretty attractive when you're chained to your cubicle furniture.

Counting up the days after you're released? I'd rather be enjoying them than tallying them. When my obituary goes to print, my descendants can calculate the final number for their own amusement.