Being Intentionally Productive in Your Personal Life

*While this article discusses being intentional in retirement, the points made are worth applying as early as you uncover and embrace them.

I recently retired and a discovered a surprising phenomenon:  I was afraid I wouldn’t be productive any more.  I had worked hard for the last thirty years and equated productivity with the tasks I accomplished for an employer.  I learned a little late (at least I learned) that I had a poor definition of productivity! 

My son, who is in the medical profession, warned me that when I retired I needed to get off the couch and do something physical at least twice a day.  I laughed off his advice because I had never been one to have enough time for “couch potato” to even be a pipe dream, but his concern spurred a larger contemplation.  Is that how retirement is viewed?  People go from productive citizens to stagnant flesh that must remember to get off the couch?   

Thus, I made the decision to enter into retirement intentionally.   I started by setting a few goals for myself.  After referencing my bucket list, one item jumped off the pages quickly – I had always wanted to write and publish a novel but never seemed to have the time.  I set a deadline for one year.  (It actually published a year and four months into my retirement.) I also joined a gym and hired a personal trainer (just in case my son had a valid point, and I was doomed to meld to the couch).  

This was a step in the right direction, but it took me a year and a half to put intentional productivity into a framework that was easy to navigate but not overly restrictive or rigid.  I am not a details person, so I needed just a few broad chunks to tackle.  I discovered that if I just focused on five things and overlaid those areas in the context of practicing positivity, productivity was the natural byproduct.

So in a nutshell, I assorted my priorities into five chunks:

• Feed your soul.
• Nurture a relationship.
• Get some exercise.
• Do a little work.
• Have some fun.

And added an overlay:

• Practice positivity.

The most important concept in the chunk framework is that time is flexible.  I usually try to structure “feed the soul” and “get some exercise” somewhere between thirty minutes and an hour each day.  “Nurturing a relationship” and “have some fun” run the gamut of time, from just a few minutes to almost all day.  “Do a little work” is the only category driven by what needs to be done.  If you have a structured full-time or part-time job, then obviously that is how much time gets allotted; but if you’re retired, then you will find that somedays you only need to spend a few minutes working, and other days, it is your primary focus.  The ideal situation is to map out time for one activity of varying length from each chunk, timewise fitting them together like a puzzle. Finally, “practice positivity” is not driven by time but attitude.     

Here are a few ideas to start, but you can create a list that is unique to you and meets your likes and interests:

• Feed your soul. This is at the top of my list because I believe nurturing the soul is the most important of human endeavors and the most overlooked. 
  • Pray and meditate.
  • Read scripture or something that inspires you.
  • Worship.
  • Praise through music.
  • Attend a class or service.
  • Socialize with likeminded individuals to discuss your faith.
  • Create something or be artistic.
  • Commune with nature.

• Nurture a relationship.  
  • Make a phone call or short visit.
  • Write a card or letter or send an email.
  • Make a thoughtful, kind post on social media.
  • Do an act of kindness for someone you love.
  • Spend time with another person.
  • Listen to understand.

• Get exercise. This doesn’t mean that you have to go the the gym every day or even join one.  Mix it up.
  • (But you can!) Go to the gym.
  • Take a walk, jog, bike ride.
  • Do a physical activity with your children or grandchildren.  (I like to take my daughter swimming or blow bubbles and chase them around the yard with my grandkids.)
  • Play with an animal outdoors (Frisbee with the dog, for instance).
  • Put on music and dance around the house.
  • Make love vigorously.
  • Do a physical chore. (These count as work also, and killing two birds with one stone is allowed!)
    • Mow the lawn. 
    • Dust the furniture.
    • Sweep and mop.
    • Weed the flower beds.

• Do a little work.  Since I decided to become a writer after retirement, that is my work focus, but I’ve also found volunteer work to be fun.  If the work you choose involves physical labor, then don’t forget, you’re meeting both categories.  Kuddos!
  • Yard work
  • House work
  • A project
  • Volunteer work
    • Local school
    • Community projects and civic organizations (garden, library, LIONS, etc.)
    • Non-profit Organizations or Charities
      • Equine Therapy Center (I tried this and loved it!)
      • Religious Organizations
      • Hospitals and Nursing Homes
  • A post-retirement profession
    • Write a book and/or a blog. (That’s what I do, so it had to make the list.)
    • A part-time position at any business

• Have some fun (or do something pleasurable)
  • Socialize with others (I’m part of a “Bookless Club” that meets once a month to try out a different restaurant in town.)
  • Do things that make you feel pampered.  
    • Go to the hair dresser. 
    • Get a massage.
    • Get a manicure or pedicure.
  • Do something mindless and guilt-free (because you set a time limit).
    • Puzzles
    • Watch television
    • Social media
    • Sit on the porch and drink coffee
  • Make love – don’t forget that if it’s vigorous, it counts as exercise, too!

As you purposefully plan something daily from each of the five categories, keep in mind that it is your attitude as you go about your day that contributes to how productive you will feel when you go to bed.

• Practice positivity.  Find something to smile at, laugh about, or to appreciate.  Life is in the context of our attitudes.  
  • Make a list of the blessings in your life – big and small. Add to it daily.
  • Take note of every day wonders and miracles.  
  • Compliment someone.
  • Thank someone.
  • Do something kind for a stranger.
  • Focus on the bright side even in a negative situation.

Plan your days intentionally making sure you address each vital area:  your soul, a relationship, your body, work, and pleasure.  It is possible that one activity could encompass several chunks.  For instance, I might invite a friend to join me at the gym or take her to lunch to thank her for her kindness. That’s great use of multi-tasking.  

There is a slightly overused analogy about filling a jar, but it fits perfectly when prioritizing your life with the five chunks.  You have this jar and you have to fill it with rocks, pebbles, and sand.  If you put the sand in first and then the pebbles or the rocks, it doesn’t all fit into the jar.  But if you put in the big rocks first, followed by the pebbles (which will in fill in the spaces around the rocks), and then the sand, (which will fill in the spaces around the pebbles), it will.  The rocks are the chunks that you plan and prioritize; the pebbles are the rote activities that have to be done, and the sand represents the extra and often unplanned things that consume your time.

For me, today was laid out like this:  my planned chunks were to drink my morning Frappuccino and play online Sudoku for no more than 30 minutes (guilt-free pleasure because it’s timed), an hour for quiet time, to pray and read from Lysa Terkeurst’s It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way (Feed Your Soul), mow the lawn, which usually takes about an hour and a half (Get Exercise & Do a Little Work), attend a friend’s retirement reception for two hours (Nurture a Relationship & Do Something Pleasurable), and write for my blog for about an hour (Do a Little Work).  In other words, my chunks took about six hours. My pebbles were to pick my daughter up from school, get her a bite to eat, and shuffle her to her friend’s house for a slumber party and to take out the garbage.  (Normally, time with my daughter falls into a chunk category, but she’s a teenager, and I’m barely on her agenda today.)  My sand today was the everyday stuff (from showering to making my bed) and the unplanned interruptions (phone calls, emails, an impromptu chat with the mailman, etc.)  At the end of the day, I was not driven by the sand or pebbles, but by the rocks. The chunks of focus gave me purpose and fulfillment.  The sand and pebbles that I never got to weren’t necessary anyway.

This framework is meant to be a flexible and freeing framework.  A great bi-product of it is that you can break big projects into much smaller units of time and discover that you still accomplish your goals.  When I wrote the novel, I dedicated an hour a day, five days a week to writing.  Somedays I would spend more time because the creative juices were flowing, but some days I did not write at all.  The point is, tackling chunks of work consistently paid off so that the final project came to fruition.  

The chunk framework is a simple adjustment in mindset that allows you to address the things that really matter and prioritize them so that you don’t get bogged down in the minutia of daily living or find yourself always on the sofa in front of the television. Some days will be driven by circumstances, and you have very little say so in what happens. That’s okay.  This framework is for the bulk of your days – the ordinary days that you get to make extraordinary and meaningful with just a little intentionality!

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The photos are of a project my friend, Alex, helped me with. I bought a broken fire pit and laid tile on the top to create a unique piece for the patio. It was my first time to cut, lay, or grout tile.