October 5, 2024

One of the greatest aspects of retirement is that, for the most part, I don’t really have to do anything that I don’t want to do. I don’t have to go to work. I don’t have to write these blog posts. No one is telling me how to spend my days. I can wake up each day and blissfully exclaim, “I wonder what I’m going to do today!”

It’s a far cry from how I spent my working days. I woke up ridiculously early to swim in a masters workout. I’d would fill my work day with meetings, problem-solving opportunities, and enjoyable visits to campuses, and I would fill each empty moment with planning for the next day, the next week, the next board meeting, and the next year. In my time away from work, I would sneak in grocery shopping, professional and pleasure reading, phone calls to family, family dinners, and a lot more.

I worked 50-60 hour weeks, yet somehow found time to get almost everything done. In fact, like many retirees I know, I often think, how did I get so much done while I was working? And why do my days feel so full now that I’m retired?

I think it’s the power of routines that make us so productive. When we are used to a 4:30 AM alarm, it’s just part of what we do. The 5:30 AM workout is another non-negotiable routine. If I could go to the grocery store on the way home, I would make it happen. When I was not talking to Board members on my one-hour plus commute home (Hi Karen! I miss our long conversations filled with business and laughter), I was talking with family members, and sometimes using the time to catch up with my wife. All these routines made me incredibly productive.

In my retirement, I have to develop new routines. That blissful wakeup scenario I mentioned earlier would not work well for me. In certain areas of life, routines are critical. And now, in my second year of retirement, I am still working to establish those routines.

I recently went on an 8-day trip to Chicago and Little Rock. I loved it! I worked with and was inspired by incredible superintendents in Chicago, and I spent four days in Little Rock visiting family. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. That being said, my 70-minute workout on my first day back home, after weighing in five pounds above my departure weight, was more minutes than I spent working out during the entire 8-day trip. I don’t usually eat biscuits and gravy for breakfast, but I love it, and I had my share on this trip. With a little more effort, I could have written a book titled, “How to gain a pound a day on your travels.” 

Needless to say, I was eager to get back to my retirement routines.

I don’t want routines for everything. But I think I need them in certain areas. Here are the areas where daily routines allow me to lead my best life: 

• Exercise
• Hydrating and Eating Healthy Food
• Showing appreciation and affection to loved ones
• Reflecting on my goals
• Keeping my home environment neat and tidy

The first four of those posts are adapted from a post from Edward Sullivan. The last one is my relatively new influence from Marie Kondo (I can feel many of you rolling your eyes). I now know that when I’m not in a peaceful and neat environment, my life feels a little out of control, and it’s hard for my mind to focus.

These routines give me a foundation for being productive, or just having fun, in the hours of each day. That foundation provides an environment of health and happiness that give me the energy and focus to write these posts, be an educational consultant, travel or plan travel, spend time with friends, and do whatever else that I would like to try.

When it comes to getting things done above and beyond my routines, I remain a fan of David Allen, who wrote Getting Things Done, one of the most influential productivity books ever written. Likewise, Atul Gawande’s outstanding Checklist Manifesto gave me tools to get more done. As a result of these books, I still make checklists every day on what I want to do, and things that need to get done. One of my favorite lines from David Allen writing down what needs to get done can actually empty our mind. He says, “Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” By having foundational routines, and by writing down ideas and using checklists for what we want to get done, we can empty our minds, leaving them open for creativity, wonder, and productivity.

It’s an odd thing, and very counterintuitive: Routines give us the opportunity to empty our mind. We don’t debate our routines. We just do them. And checklists help to empty our minds by getting stuff out of our head and onto a paper or digital list.

I’ll end by quoting the famous actor and martial artist, Bruce Lee. David Allen thinks that Mr. Lee’s quote about water epitomizes the idea of an empty mind being able to accomplish incredible things.

“Empty your mind, be formless. 
Shapeless, like water. 
If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. 
You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. 
You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. 
Now, water can flow or it can crash. 
Be water, my friend.”

Post #118 on www.drmdmatthews.com

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NOTES

The blog post from Edward Sullivan is actually about the danger of routines. He mentioned the five routines I cited, but warned that too many of us develop a myriad of routines, and that we don’t stray from them. New experiences keep us alive. I believe that new experiences keep our minds active and are actually extremely healthy for us. He posted that list only as a minimum, and warned people not to go overboard in terms of routines. There’s a lot of science on the power of brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand, and doing anything out of the norm. Tony Horton’s famous P-90X workout routine was about always changing the workout to confuse our bodies. When our bodies experience the same workout too often, they adapt and can coast.  I’ve read a lot recently about trying to incorporate at least thirty different plant foods into your diet each week. So yes to routines on the foundation of our lives, and yes to as many new and interesting experiences as possible.

Bruce Lee was an incredible human being. I don’t claim to be an expert on his life, but I know that he was a revered martial artist, that his strength and reflexes were legendary, that he became a film star through persistence and dedication, and that he was a prolific reader and writer of philosophy. He loved the duality and paradox of water: Its peacefulness and its power; Its ability to nourish and to destroy; That it could both feel soft and like a concrete wall. By being like water, Lee could adapt to anything in a fight. But he meant it for life as well. David Allen took that concept to our brains, which are often overloaded with worry about all we have to do, and worry about possibly forgetting something really important. That anxiety leads to nothing good. Hence his philosophy on Getting Things Done. Here is Bruce Lee stating the Be water, my friend quote. A few years ago, I saw the ESPN documentary on him called Be Water. It was outstanding. I believe you need to have a subscription to ESPN to see it. 

I’ve said this before, but way too often, these posts reflect my desire to be better. I aspire to focus on routines and checklists, so I can lead my best life. I am not disciplined enough to keep that focus front and center every day. This post is my way of leaving footprint on my own backside, a Skin Bracer slap to my face, encouraging me to actually do what I know will make me better.

One of the great mentors in my life, Dr. Neil Schmidt, had a huge desk that had a phone on it and nothing else. Completely empty. Two things about that. First, I think the drawers were crammed full of stuff. And second, I believe it was my friend Ilene who gave him a sign for his desk that said, “If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what does an empty desk represent?” Or something like that. He thought it was hilarious and so did I. Fast forward thirty years, and maybe that sign was actually a compliment. 

Photo generated by ChatGPT. I had to argue with it for a long time to get that checklist right.