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, I 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 need to adjust course: 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 at the end of July. I’m trying to be a little more regular in my updates.
How did I do over the past 3 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.
How did I do?
In the past 12 weeks, I spent 3 working in the hospital, and 9 doing my usual clinic work.
I surprised myself by hitting my exercise goals for all 3 hospital weeks. I think being able to walk partway home after my (many) days at work really helped me achieve this. This is less practical when it is very cold and gets dark early. I will take the win for now.
During my “normal” weeks, I hit my goal 6 weeks out of 9. This gives me a “D” at 67%. I do better if I include my hospital weeks; I move up to a “C” with 75%. Not great–not what a premed student would hope for–but it’s a passing grade.
My stretch goal was to start doing my PT exercises or a stretching routine. None of that happened.
Though I feel better in the weeks I do more exercise (over 200 minutes is usually a great week), my goals should be something I have a half-way decent chance of hitting. I’ll keep my goals the same for now.
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, for now.
How did I do?
I hosted a birthday party for my good friend, and had our entire Zoom group over (it was only 3 guests). I pulled out the nice china for the event and we had a great time. After that, there was a big gap until I invited myself to my friend’s house for tea and cookies one weekend. Only 2 events in 3 months, the first time I’ve dropped the ball in this category since keeping track.
Another long-term goal had been to connect more with the religious community. In the aftermath of my father’s death, I think I have this taken care of as well.
In July I hoped to attend services in-person at least once a month; that, I did not manage. I did attend services (in-person) once in the 3 months.
Going forward, I will stick with my weekly Zoom calls, aiming for social visits once a month (all the while hoping to exceed that goal), and continuing with the religious services.
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 the past 3 months included working on my office (especially clearing away things stashed on/near the heating) and chipping away at a particular corner of the living room, where we hope to have a piano, eventually.
How did I do?
I did clear away 3 bags of journals and magazines from the living room. I also, over the course of a month, placed about one grocery bag’s worth of books in the local Little Free Libraries. These weren’t, strictly speaking, in the proposed piano area; however, clearing them away does move the decluttering project forward. (If nothing else, I have a little more room to sort through items). I have a few plastic crates and boxes of things I mean to give away, but which haven’t been donated yet.
As for the office, mostly I put my tchotchkes back on the shelves, though I did cull my collection a bit. I have a number of framed things (posters, diplomas) that still haven’t made it to the walls, and are blocking vents for the warm air.
My goal for this Fall should probably focus on hanging the pictures I want to keep, and finding new homes for the rest; clearing away more journals and magazines; and giving away the items that have been waiting months to leave the house. If I can do all this, lots of visual clutter will be gone. If I can empty my desk drawers in the living room, that will be an excellent bonus.
Local Adventures
I made no plans for these over the summer, but probably enjoyed more of these than I have in ages.
Mr. PiN and I went on a bookstore date, saw two races near our home (one a car race, then other a foot race), visited a new tennis court, and took in an exhibit at our local science museum. That’s nearly 2 outings each month–what dissipation!
If not-planning for adventures will trick me into going to more of them, that might be my plan going forward. Honestly, I would like to spend more time with friends, and I might be willing to sacrifice adventures for the Fall if that means I get out a little more for social things. If I can swing both, however, that would be awesome.
Reading
Reading for fun always makes me very happy. I am feeling overwhelmed by work, and don’t feel likely challenging myself in this domain. I may add this back once other parts of my life are back under control again.
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 kept three goals for this period:
- Finish a photo book for any year since 2018.
- Continue knitting, or possibly restart quilting.
- Keep blogging.
I kept blogging, though I didn’t manage 2 posts a week every week.
The scarf suffered from dropped stitches, got fixed, and promptly developed another dropped stitch. I did find a local yarn store, and plan to drop by during a social hour to work on the scarf (with supervision). I really need to get on this, as I have LOTS of video CME to get done this winter.
My goals for the next month remain the same: complete a photo book or two (preferably in time to take advantage of holiday deals), in addition to finishing that scarf. A matching hat and gloves would be amazing.
MKSAP
I plan to sit boards next year, and would like to make my way through all of the MKSAP program before then.
My goal has been to complete 2 study sessions with my friend, or reading through 1 subject area on my own, each non-hospital month.
I can confidently state that I have fallen grossly behind on this challenge. I have 7 topics and 3 non-hospital months before I plan to take my boards.
We’ll see how much I can get done before my next update.
Financial tasks
As I automate more and more of my financial tasks, there is less to list here.
I have all the usual Autumn chores to go through: deal with Open Enrollment at work, decide about charitable donations for 2023 before the end of the year, get ready to contribute to our Roth IRAs through the backdoor for January.
I still need to get Mr. PiN to make decisions about investing his IRA.
Some of our cash was put into CDs whose rates now look low. I’m not sure I have the bandwidth to worry about that right now. It could be worse, at least the money isn’t still in accounts earning less than 1% interest.
If I can take care of those tasks before the next update, I’ll be golden. I think.
TL;DR
In short, my updated goals are to:
- Keep exercising, maybe with stretching or my PT exercises.
- Hit the accelerator on my MKSAP plans.
- Make my knitting great again.
- Put await or give away a number of items that need to move from their current spots.
What goals do you have for this Fall?