I’m back at it 🙂 . Years ago I mentioned that I accidentally recorded everything I did in 1 hour increments for my whole first year of retirement. Originally this was because I was curious to see what I got up to with unlimited time, and later I found it so useful that I just kept doing it.
And here we are several years later and I’ve finished my 5th year of retirement.
I love that I can look at this information to see patterns and explanations for how I might be feeling physically and emotionally. For example, if I felt the urge to curl up and read for 8 hours straight, I could look back and see that I spent a lot more time around people than usual the week before. It all makes sense 🙂 .
I also realized last year that recording what I do all day has the accidental benefit of also showing how much I sleep I get (aka when there’s no activity logged on my calendar, I’m asleep). So I have that information as well if I’m wondering why I want more naps lately for example 😉 .
I find recording what I do in a day takes little time and the benefits far exceed the time spent, so I’m planning to keep doing it until that balance shifts 🙂 . These records also allow me to do something fun: Compare my third year of retirement to my fourth! I have actual data to show what I did more of, less of and generally what changed in how I spent my time.
- Here’s What Retirees Do All Day: Year 1
- Here’s What Retirees Do All Day: Year 2
- I Recorded What I Did Every Hour For 3 Years Of Retirement
- I Recorded What I Did Every Hour For 4 Years Of Retirement
My Method
So how do I log all of this? I already have all of my appointments in my Google Calendar so when I retired, I started adding what else I was doing to my calendar in hour increments.
I then started counting what I did each hour and each day and inputting it into a spreadsheet and then I…got bored 🙂 . It felt too much like timekeeping from my career so I stopped.
My official way of figuring out what I do each year and what activities have increased and decreased is quite unscientific 🙂 . I color code my calendar already by default so I can glance at weeks at a time and see what I was focusing on, which is what informs the monthly focuses I’ll discuss below. I then extrapolate out those months to an annual trend.
Here’s What I Do All Day
So that’s my process – now let’s see what’s changed! In Year 4 of retirement, here is how I spent my time in order of most time spent:
- Reading
- Socializing
- Traveling
- Being Outside/Walking (Exploring, Birdwatching)
- Video Gaming
- Writing
- Watching Films
- Running
- Yoga
- Meditation
- Napping
Below is what that list looks like for Year 5 of retirement. I’ve added increase and decrease arrows to show what I spent more or less time doing this year compared to last year:
- Knitting🆕
- Reading
- Socializing
- Traveling
- Being Outside/Walking (Exploring, Birdwatching etc)
- Yoga/PT⬆️
- Video Gaming
- Writing
- Watching Films
- Meditation
- Napping
- Running⬇️
And here’s an example of what a week of tracking looks like and how I track my time with color coding in Google Calendar:
A Monthly Focus
The above list was difficult to put together accurately and it took me a second to realize why: my focus changes month to month depending on where I am, what I’m doing, and any upcoming deadlines I have (self imposed or otherwise 😉 ).
So I thought it might be helpful to show what my focus was each month of this year to get a more full picture. Here are the top things I focused on during each of the last 12 months:
October 2024
Location: Switzerland🇨🇭 & Italy🇮🇹
Focus: Traveling, Reading
November 2024
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands🇳🇱
Focus: Exploring, Reading, Writing
December 2024
Location: Upstate NY🇺🇸
Focus: Writing, Socializing, Knitting
January 2025
Location: Tokyo, Kyoto & Sapporo Japan🇯🇵
Focus: Traveling
February 2025
Location: Auckland, New Zealand🇳🇿
Focus: Knitting, Exploring
March 2025
Location: Tokyo & Osaka, Japan🇯🇵
Focus: Traveling
April 2025
Location: Seattle, WA🇺🇸
Focus: Yoga/PT, Socializing
May 2025
Location: Upstate NY🇺🇸
Focus: Yoga/PT, Settling Down
June 2025
Location: Perú🇵🇪
Focus: Traveling
July 2025
Location: The UK🇬🇧 (England🏴, Scotland🏴)
Focus: Traveling, Socializing
August 2025
Location: Bath, UK🇬🇧
Focus: Knitting, Reading, Exploring
September 2025
Location: Iceland🇮🇸
Focus: Traveling, Knitting
What Increased?
Now let’s talk about what increased this year.
Knitting
My hobby of knitting has taken over my life – and I wouldn’t have it any other way 🙂 . Since learning how to knit in January, I’ve made 3 scarves, 2 headbands, 2 hats and 1 cable-knit sweater.
I’m now starting on another more complex cable-knit sweater that resembles Ransom’s in Knives Out. I think it’s going to be my Everest and I look forward to the excitement, frustration and relaxation this project will bring me. Knitting creates a lot of different emotions depending on how well it’s going 😉 .
I’m really proud of how far I’ve come with this hobby and I’m really happy about how much I enjoy it. It’s also by far my most expensive hobby this year so it’s good to know that those dollars are well spent 😉 .
Socializing
The amount that I socialize with people who aren’t my Partner or my Mom has increased exponentially this year. That’s partially because I traveled with friends to Japan and the UK. It’s also because I’ve met more of y’all during my travels than I have any other year I believe.
But the big reason is because of our homebase near my Partner’s family. All of them are within 15 minutes of us and I usually go to my Partner’s Mom’s house to have coffee each day and chat. I then usually am roped into some other activity with my sister-un-laws and/or niblings, such as cheesemaking, gardening or recently example: visiting a pumpkin farm!
There’s always something going on, and being so close to his family distance-wise has led to more social activities in general and more spontaneity, which I ‘plan’ to get better at every year (do you see my problem 😉 ?) So I’ve been hanging out with people a lot more than usual and instead of sending my introvert-light blaring, it’s brought me a ridiculous amount of joy 🙂 . I’m excited to keep it up.
Yoga/Pilates/PT
This is related to my main decrease this year – running 🙂 . After I declared last year “The Year Of Fitness,” I ran more than I ever had and it turns out that I pushed my 36 year old body too far. I guess I forgot I’m not in my 20s anymore 😉 .
As a result, I’ve had to take a long break from running which has made me sad, but I tried it a few times and it only made my injuries worse, so I’m trying to not get ahead of myself and backslide again. I was concerned that my lack of running might be reflected in my blood pressure and blood panel numbers at my last doctor’s check up, but it wasn’t luckily.
I’m no less healthy according to those numbers than when I was running three times a week. However, that might partially be because I am now walking just as much and also doing a combination of yoga and pilates routines daily that I learned from physical therapists.
I’m glad that I’ve taken the time to focus on my body and not continued to overextend myself. I’m feeling a lot better and I hope that trend continues.
Conclusion
And that’s what I’ve been up to in my 5th year of retirement! A reader told me recently that they thought that me tracking my time seems like how someone tracks their budget. Tracking both is very interesting to me and they made the great point that we allot both time and money to what we value most. So true 🙂 .
I’m still finding it interesting to track my activities over time and see how my focus changes year to year and month to month. It makes me curious what my focus will be a year in the future – I have no idea 🙂 . Anyway, I hope this was an interesting look into the question so many people ask me: “What do you do all day?”
Also if you’re interested in a more in-depth look at what I’ve been up to in Year 5, here are my monthly retirement recaps from the past year:
- The Month Of Switzerland & Italy: October 2024 Recap
- The Month Of Amsterdam: November 2024 Recap
- The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2024 Recap
- The Month Of Yuki Matsuri: January 2025 Recap
- The Month Of Auckland: February 2025 Recap
- The Month Of Sakura: March 2025 Recap
- The Month Of Seattle: April 2025 Recap
- The Month Of Settling Down(ish): May 2025 Recap
- The Month Of Machu Picchu: June 2025 Recap
- The Month Of The UK: July 2025 Recap
- The Month Of Bath: August 2025 Recap
- The Month Of Iceland: September 2025 Recap
Hey Purple!
Thank you so much for sharing. 😊
I was curious about how you add up all the hours. It can’t be done manually, can it? 😅
Thank you for reading! I mentioned in the post that I started doing it manually and gave up because it was boring lol so now it’s based on calendar color coding and my monthly focus.
Oh, sorry! I did read it, but I didn’t realize it was more of a visual approach rather than an exact count. That makes perfect sense now. Thanks for clarifying! 🙂
No worries 🙂
That Irish hiking scarf came out beautifully. You’ve clearly discovered a hidden talent in knitting; I’m sure your sweater will turn out well. A college roommate tried to teach me to crochet many years ago, but I never could manage much in the way of patterns.
This kind of tracking really puts it in perspective that our lives are finite.
Every day, really every hour, is a fresh set of choices. You can spend that time on things that bring you joy, or you can waste it on stuff that doesn’t matter in the end. Too many people fritter away their precious days as if they’ll live forever, and as a result, they end up never really living at all.
I like to think we’re all here because we know not to make that mistake. That’s the core principle of FIRE, even more than frugality or investment.
Obviously, I wouldn’t want to go overboard and optimize my life down to the minute. But it’s a good reminder that once your time is gone, it’s gone, so we’d better make the most of it while we’ve got the chance.
Very poignant and well said 🙂 . Our time being finite was a huge motivation for me to retire early. That’s a great addition to the usual core principles of FIRE.
So awesome to read, thank you again Purple! I don’t recall when your birthday was but knew it’s in October, so Happy Birthday Month to you lol
Haha thank you and I’m glad you enjoyed the post 🙂 .
Very interesting read indeed. As they say what gets measured gets improved it’s impressive that you are able to travel your day in hourly increments. It must keep you productive in retirement given that you have to account for the time? I track running during the FI journey. Goal is to run farther than the previous year I’m on a seven year streak
Interestingly I think it might be the opposite 🙂 – a big reason I’ve continued to track my time is because it’s usually pretty simple since I do one activity for a lot of hours at a time, such as reading a book in one sitting for 6 hours or knitting an entire slipper. If I was running around like I was when I was working doing something different every 15 minutes I doubt I would still be happily logging that time on my calendar.
Every month I feel like I don’t do much because I just relax and do what I want, but based on what my Mom/Editor tells me, I do a lot. She says I’m self-motivated and have always been like that so I’ll trust her on that one lol. Anyway, I also just find it really interesting to know how what I spend my time on changes each year in retirement and I know that if I didn’t write it down in posts like these I wouldn’t remember so that’s helpful to me and my future self.
That’s awesome you track your running and congratulations on your 7 year streak – that’s amazing!
This is one of my favorite recurring posts of your blog. One thing I find so cool is how you embrace things that weren’t necessarily on your radar. Your knitting skills are fantastic from what I’m seeing in the pictures and it’s so cool that you just started this year. It always inspires me to try new things but also continue the hobbies that I have picked up in the past. Always love the posts and these recurring ones are so fun to see year to year. I remember when you retired and can’t believe it’s been five years! Wow
That is very good to know! I was wondering before I posted it if anyone cared but me since I do this every year and that definitely answers my question 🙂 .
And oh wow – thank you! My Partner says I’m “all or nothing” and I think that’s fair lol. If I find something I enjoy or that interests me I’m all in! And knitting is definitely that thing this year.
And yeah I can’t believe it’s been 5 years either – that sounds completely ridiculous 🙂 .
What I find really impressive is how little of your time seems to be spent on the internet. It seems like you don’t get really caught up in social media and the typical doomscrolling that so many people do. Well done.
Haha yeah that is intentional – it’s something I strived to do when I retired since a lot of my life was spent exactly like that when I was working. I don’t spend basically any time on social media and I never scroll – I just post pictures on Insta and bounce lol and that seems to have saved me a lot of time and strife.
Totally get what you mean about needing downtime after socializing! Somehow I can’t get out of a pattern of socializing a lot one week and then hibernating the next hahaha
Haha nice! That’s definitely better than the “just grimace through it” method I employed while working in an office all the time.
That was the worst! Definitely appreciated the shift to remote work later in my career haha
I like how you always try new things and hobbies. I used to run as well, but as we age, I have switched to different activities like yoga, baking breads and swimming.
Home made bread tastes so much better and healthier. I think I will continue to learn how to bake better bread, tortillas, pitas etc. As for swimming, It took me a very long time to learn it and I really like it now. It is low stress on your knees and joints, but it is a whole body workout. I would highly recommend swimming if you are up for it.
Haha it keeps happening accidentally 🙂 . I do enjoy swimming – I was even on a swim team for a hot second 😉 . Bread baking sounds awesome – I haven’t tried it before, but I guess I have to add that to my list of hobbies to try. Thank you!