A lot of people enjoy a number of maladies when they retire. Its sort of like moving to a new part of the country by yourself...
Your work social life changes or disappears. You're home all day when most or all of the people you know are at work. Without structure a lot of people end up with the low common denominator of laying around doing the things we used to use to take a break from the working day, except now those things become your day.
Early Retirement Activated Attention Deficit Disorder is also a common affliction. Its easy to do a lot of things but get very little done. (see below)
Having a spouse and/or children around all the time can be a big help to figuring out how to restructure your life. They can also become part of the problem when you find out that relationships that worked great with 40-50 hours of space around them work a lot differently when the space goes away.
I think the best description of the situation is from someone who pointed out that disorganized, underachieving school kids suddenly become constructive and organized workers when placed in the structure of a corporation or even the local fast food joint. Take the organization, goals and structure away and you have to make up your own.
I find its helpful to have a bunch of lists. Big projects, little projects, errands, shopping lists, things you want to cook, places you want to go both far and near, fun things. Yes, a list of fun things! I find its sometimes easier to crash on the couch and flip on the tv rather than think of something more constructive and amusing to do.
Another early retiree says that the bane of the early retirees existence is too much free time in the mornings. You read the paper, check your email, look at 3 internet forums. Now your brain and thoughts are all scattered around a hundred different disparate ideas and directions and it's gonna keep sorting those and considering them well away from your conscious thought. Thats not going to lead to a productive and interesting day. Antidote is to have something or somewhere to go first thing in the morning, the gym, a coffee shop with a friend, etc. Look at what your life was before...you got up, got ready for work, drove there, checked your voicemail, and had a bunch of meetings and things that you knew needed to be done. There were people popping in to pull you into things. Your boss, peers and subordinates were watching what you did and how you did it. And on weekends you had all that stuff you'd put off all week that needed to be done, and relaxing in preparation for the next wave.
Structure, structure, structure, and oh yes....expectations!
Relax. You're a motivated self starter that for the first time in a long time has nothing crucial to start, and no deadlines.
Recently, I was diagnosed with E.R.A.A.D.D....
Early Retirement Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.
This is how it manifests:
I decide to water my garden.
As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide my car needs washing.
As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mailbox earlier.
I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.
I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full.
So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first.
But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.
I take my checkbook off the table, and see that there is only one check left.
My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk, where I find the can of Coke that I had been drinking.
I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Coke aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. I realize the Coke is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.
As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye--they need to be watered. I set the Coke down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning.
I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers.
I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water, and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table.
I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.
I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor.
So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill.
Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.
At the end of the day...
the driveway is flooded,
the car isn't washed,
the bills aren't paid,
there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter,
there is still only one check in my check book,
I can't find the remote,
I can't find my glasses, and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled, because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired.
I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check the forum and see if there are any new posts...