Retirement Daily Schedule Planning and the Need for Discipline

Retiring from work, and especially if you are going to spend most of your time on your own, the lost of structure could be a frightening thing. For example when you are working, you know what time you have to wake up to go to work, the commute is routine, and at work you have given task to complete, and when it's time to knock off, you go home, eat your dinner, rest, and next day repeat.  But when you stop working, what do you do with your time? And who is going to be there to ensure you don't slack off? Well, the answer is up to you! And nobody is going to be monitoring you and telling you that you are wasting your time or cutting your pay! And that to some people, may be a frightening thought.

Well you first have got to have a plan. Perhaps have your days planned out. Have some kind of structure, yet enough freedom so that you don't feel like you're confined by anything. How your day goes its entirely up to you! But I would definitely recommend that you have some idea before you just go cold turkey! Cause if you don't, you may end up wasting a lot of your time away not achieving much. Even if your plan is to rest and do nothing for a month, it's still a plan! Just remember, you are going to have A LOT OF TIME the moment you stop working! 40 hours extra at least, if you're a working adult in Singapore.

Here's my rough plan for my weekday:

1. 6/7am : I still wake up early cause I love morning when its cool and quiet.
2. 8am:     I'll go to the market to do my marketing (yes I do my marketing on a daily basis, pretty French chic eh?)
3. 9am:     Have breakfast (optional to have it earlier as well), clean house
4. 10am:   Prepare meal of the day after that. 
5. 10am:   Spend 2 hours on a project. (Step 4 and 5 can be interchanged depending on the effort of the meal)
6. 12noon:Have lunch at noon
7. 1pm:     Spend 2 hours on a project
8. 3pm:     Have tea.
9. 3:30pm:Spend 1 or 2 hours on a project
10. 5pm      Go for a walk or exercise
11. 7pm:     Bath and have dinner
12. 8pm:     Entertainment: TV, read, internet, music, planning next day's meal
13. 12midnight: Sleep

Projects in the above list can mean: crafting, writing, researching things up, baking, experimenting, going out exploring, planning, reading, volunteering, blogging, learning a new skill, learning a new language etc.

Ideally I can afford gym membership after I retired, and there is a gym I can get to without spending money on transport cause I love my gym! And doing things while everyone else working solves the crowd problem all together. Even eating out on weekdays can be significantly cheaper. 

Why do I have such a detailed list? Cause I have been doing the same thing whenever I am off, or there is a long weekend holiday. I have also been planning my retirement for more than a decade now! My only fear is discipline. Cause when you don't have to report to anyone, it is easy to get distracted by the computer, by your bed, by Facebook, by almost anything. And it is also easy to slack off by putting off preparing your healthy meal daily, or skipping your exercise. Also, don't forget the discipline to control your spending now that you have removed the luxury of a regular income!

So I think retiring early involves a lot of planning, discipline, and creativity! Something you won't be having much of if you work full time cause work is going to dull your thinking! (unless you're doing what you love of course).