Member-only story
Aging, Retirement
The Clean Slate of 2025
Retirement allows for a monthly planner vs. monthly to-do’s
Does anything welcome the new year more than January’s empty page in the old-timey monthly planner? Does anything say, “Retirement? Yes, my time is now my own,” more than the monthly planner? The kind you write in, spill coffee on and use as a dream machine.
The planner is unlike your phone calendar, which always served as your time warden, tracking your monthly time in fifteen-minute allotments. Meetings, deadlines, Zoom calls, reports, etc. are all duly logged for instant access. Also, it is a constant reminder that your time is not your own.
Your phone didn’t plan your time, your phone scheduled your time. It wasn’t a planner; it was a do-er. It ensured the efficient use of time, deadlines to be met, and scheduled Zoom calls that contrived even more deadlines, all in the name of “planning.”
But now retirement holds the promise of planning a good part of your life. Of course, there are the to-do’s, probably liberally sprinkled with the medical kind. (Pro tip: Don’t forget to put those in your phone and X-out the days in your planner. )
But a look at the luxuriously empty squares each day in January! Look at the eleven months that follow!
