Congratulations!  You have retired! You are finally ready to enjoy absolute freedom with no one to tell you how to spend your time.  Now what?  What do you want to do?  Without planning, it’s possible to sleep late, watch TV all day and become isolated from others.

The best way to avoid stagnating in retirement is being intentional about “building a good day”.  A good place to start is with daily routines – a time for waking, exercising, cooking, reading and going to bed.  The next step is to add your favorite activities – gardening for some, a book club or bird watching group for another.  Later on, you may try adding activities like volunteering or Pickleball.

If you have friends or family nearby, you can be intentional about how often you see them and what time works best for you.

After you’ve set up your “good day” or week, check in with yourself that you have balanced your time well and that retirement feels like a gift.

*Based on an idea from a wonderful new book by Mary Pipher on women in their sixties and early seventies that I highly recommend called “Women Rowing North”.