Not long after the start of this blog, I cut my hours very slightly, and wanted to make sure I didn’t waste the extra time I was paying dearly for.
I had started reading about preparing for retirement in non-financial ways, and I realized that it was time to start (re-) building a life that didn’t revolve solely around medicine.
I started this series of posts at the end of October 2018 with lots of big goals, but even at the beginning, knew that I couldn’t follow all those dreams all at once. Every few months, I try to look at what I have accomplished, and see if I can adjust course to focus my free time in the directions I wish I would go: increasing fitness, building (or maintaining) connections with friends, family and community, engaging with the arts, and, lately, keeping up with financial tasks.
My last update was in late March. After taking nearly half a year to update my progress towards my goals, I started doing a little monthly wrap up, to see if that would better keep me on track.
How did I do over the past 4 months?
Exercise
Getting to retirement in bad physical shape doesn’t sound like a great time. I have hopes that once I am in retirement, I can become fitter, but I realize I can’t wait that long to take care of my body. So one of my goals–the one I have probably focused most on–is to get more exercise while I am still working.
My goals have changed over the years, increasing when I have more time, decreasing as my schedule changes. Currently I try to get 150 minutes a week of some exercise (see: CDC recommendations) with at least 30 minutes of strength building; when I work in the hospital, I just can’t get that much. Instead, I lower my goal to 90 minutes of exercise, since that’s a realistic stretch.
In March, I also tried to restart doing my PT exercises–I think 3 times a week was the target.
How did I do?
In the past 18 weeks, I spent 4 working in the hospital, 13 doing my usual clinic work, and 1 out of town for on vacation.
Once again, I killed it on vacation, exercising about 3 times as much as my usual goal. I also killed my hips doing all that exercise.
Overall, I met my exercise goals in 13 out of the 18 weeks. 2 missed weeks were just bad weeks, but one week I didn’t exercise because of air quality issues, and another week I was sick Overall, this is a passing rate of 72%. Not great, but better than last check-in.
PT exercises hardly got done at all. I met my goal for two weeks in the first month I planned to do them, and did one more set while on vacation. This was a total miss.
My goals going forward will be generally the same: 150 minutes a week normally, reduced to 90 minutes when I work in the hospital.
I would certainly benefit from stretching and/or resuming my PT exercises, and will keep it listed here as a stretch goal (yes, a bad pun!). We will see if I do anything about this.
Connections
More and more is being written about the importance of connections: with family, with friends, with people in the community. When I first cut back at work, I had been working long hours and neglecting my personal connections; this section was a prompt to work on this aspect of a healthy life.
The pandemic definitely put a crimp in my plans, though the rise of Zoom helped in some ways. My goals have been to keep up with my weekly social video calls, and maybe shoot for one in-person event per month.
How did I do?
I had my friend over three times in March and April (“to do MKSAP,” though 2 of those sessions were purely social), a trip to see family in April, another family visit in May while on vacation. June saw a visit from my college roommate, and a visit to a local museum with a friend.
All of these activities got me past my goal of one in-person event per month.
Another long-term goal had been to connect more with the religious community. Using Zoom, I have been attending more regularly the services where I grew up. I have been avoiding my local community, which misses at least some of the point.
Going forward, I think I would like to stick with the one-a-month goal for local social visits, keeping up with the social Zoom calls, and continuing with the religious services. Setting a goal of 1 in-person religious service a month seems reasonable, but we’ll see if I actually get this done.
Clear the Clutter
My hope is to start retirement with a (mostly) decluttered home. The thought of having to spend several years shoveling out my house in order to enjoy it is… dispiriting.
My goals for this Spring centered on my office: clearing out books and some of the tchotchkes from the shelves. I also wanted to continue clearing the “piano corner,” in the hopes we can bring in an instrument during the warmer weather.
How did I do?
I cleared all the tchotckes from the shelves, and admired the clean lines of my books. I was thrilled for about a month.
Then I started thinking the shelves looked too spare and severe, and I wanted some of my decorative items back.
I put about half of them back on the shelves, and felt able to throw or give away (thanks to my Buy Nothing group!) about one quarter of the items. There are still a few too many things on the shelves, and a small box of things to sort through, but overall, I am pleased with this project.
I was also able to cull about 2 grocery bags full of books; they are waiting to be donated somewhere (all the Little Free Libraries on my travels are currently full!).
My desk area (the future piano spot) remains cluttered, but improved. This is also the landing zone for items to go to Goodwill. I think a trip this week or next may improve the look, though I still have a good amount of work to complete.
Going forward, I still have some work to do in my office before winter comes. I especially need to deal with all the stuff piled on/near the heating element before the central heating gets used. I will keep chipping away at the desk/piano area too.
I did start taking photos every few months. The first ones show how cluttered and messy things had gotten (and I had already cleared a lot of stuff by the end of 2022), and I can definitely see progress since. I still have a long way to go, though.
Local Adventures
I gave up on setting goals in this category, as I was worn out this Spring.
However, I started to feel better as the year rolled on and the weather got nicer. I did make it to the local museum twice, and to a food festival.
I am not sure that I have the energy to try to fit in one adventure a month–my previous goal–but we’ll see what happens. I may wait until next year before I try to hit that mark.
Reading
Reading for fun always makes me very happy.
In prior posts, I have listed reading one or more books that challenge me as my goal; but I gave that up last time, as I was too worn out to give myself more work.
I did make a little progress on that front anyway. I gave away my copy of Americanah, which had been taunting me from my bookshelf for several few years. While on vacation, though, I finally read through a book I bought (no kidding) 20 years ago. I didn’t particularly like it, but I’m glad to have finally read it through. It also went into a Little Free Library as soon as we got home, and was picked up rather quickly.
I still don’t feel ready to pick up challenging books right now. If I’m going to set a goal at all, I think it will be to feel free to read more fun books–this is one of the best ways to lift my mood, and I could use that these day.
Creative Activities
I realize that although I listed more crafty/arty projects here, what I really wanted to do was use different, and maybe new, skills. Different from work, anyway.
I had three goals for this period:
- Finish a photo book for any of the past 4 years.
- Continue knitting, or possibly restart quilting.
- Keep blogging.
I kept blogging, though there have been some dropped weeks, and some very short place-holder posts.
The new scarf was doing well, until I dropped some stitches.
The photo books just haven’t happened. Partly this is because I do them on the computer, so it’s easy either to get distracted by other internet attractions, or to decide I need to stop staring at a screen.
Going forward, I need to get my knitting back in shape (I have a lot of CME time coming up, prime time for knitting). I hope to blog more regularly, with what I would consider “real” posts. I will keep that photo book on the wish list; what I really want is to have one ready for the holiday specials that start showing up around Thanksgiving.
CME/MKSAP
I realized that I have to sit boards next year. I therefore set a goal of working my way through MKSAP during my non-hospital months (working in the hospital uses too much energy; plus, I review plenty of medicine while working there). For each eligible month, the challenge was to: (a) complete 2 study sessions with my friend (b) read through one subject on my own. An alternative goal was to complete 2 subject quizzes per quarter.
In the past 4 months, I have completed 1 study session with my friend. To be fair, I have also worked in the hospital in 2 of the past 4 months. I’m behind, though.
Going forward, I think sticking with these goals will be more manageable. I’m feeling ready to do more questions and/or reading on my own, and I think my friend’s weekend schedule may lighten up soon.
I’m also signed up for an extra certification, which means I’ll be watching some educational videos (and knitting). I’m OK putting this off to bad weather days, so this may wait until the weather changes.
Financial tasks
I had 2 goals for this period: to invest the money in our IRAs, and to move our savings into a higher yielding account.
Our savings account at our main bank raised the interest rate, so I didn’t need to move anything there. Though this is a “special rate,” which means I need to keep an eye on things. I did move the money from my credit union account (still paying peanuts–no, paying peanut dust) into 2 CDs.
I did, finally, invest my IRA into some index funds. Mr. PiN is still thinking about what he wants to do with his Roth IRA money; I may have to nag him a bit more.
For the next check in, I really need to nudge Mr. PiN to invest his Roth IRA. And make a plan for both IRA contributions for 2024. That doesn’t seem too bad.
TL;DR
In short, I’m mostly happy with my progress, though there is certainly room for improvement. I will keep working on:
- Exercising (with the additional goal of stretching).
- Reading fun books, knitting a scarf, studying MKSAP more regularly, and clearing up my home office, which I spend at least an hour in every day.
- Starting that photo book (or two), and working on Mr. PiN to invest his IRA.
What goals do you have for the Summer and Fall?