It’s been just over a year since I cut out my Monday clinic, and started keeping track of what I did with that extra day out of the office.
Not counting hospital weeks (when I didn’t get anything close to a day off), vacations (when I was going to be out of the office anyway), and national holidays falling on a Monday, I ended up with 31 Mondays that were extra days “off.”
I had high hopes of practicing the retired life on these days, and using that time to pursue projects or activities I usually can’t pursue on a week day.
Looking back at my reports on those 31 Mondays, what did I actually end up doing?
It will come as no surprise to anyone who works in primary care that I did some sort of clinical work every Monday I had “off.” Usually it was a couple hours of reviewing and responding to patient messages and refilling prescriptions. This Spring, I twice went into the clinic to see patients when I needed to reschedule appointments because of last minute changes. There were a few other weeks where I had 1 or 2 video visits for people I couldn’t otherwise schedule during my regular hours.
I also attended educational and business meetings by video on Mondays–which wasn’t always awesome, but being able to do these from home was a bonus.
Despite all this, I did get to sleep in, or at least skip an alarm clock, 13 weeks out of the 31.
Five times, I was able to schedule my own medical appointments without worrying about my work schedule.
I was able twice to shift my personal training session to a Monday, when the weekend wouldn’t work for either me or my trainer.
As for some of my bigger goals, I did spend one Monday last summer gardening. Unfortunately, I picked up a bad case of poison ivy, which deterred me from doing more.
I also left town twice to visit my mother, which was one of my stated reasons for taking my Mondays off in the first place. I had thought to do this more often, but then life got in the way (the fact that my best friend had what turned out to be her final hospitalization during my first visit probably had a lot to do with this as well).
So–what did I get out of these 31 extra Mondays off over the past year?
Looking at my reports, there was a lot of paper sorting and disposal, and enjoying a book at home. Plus catching up on my work in-basket, and attending to my own appointments.
I also had an excuse to scan tons of silly memes and pick out 31 of them to use in my Wednesday W posts, of course.
What I didn’t write about, was having the extra energy, most weekends, to get a lot of chores done Saturday and Sunday. By Monday, I was tired of doing chores, but also felt more comfortable doing a nothing productive for part of the day. I’m not sure I like having my day of rest on a Monday, but it is certainly better than having none.
Going forward…
I’m not sure what I would like to do going forward.
It’s obvious to me, based on the amount of work I am doing on Mondays, that these are not really a test-drive of retirement. This schedule is mostly helping me keep up with the work I am doing.
I think the better way to honor this extra time is maybe to do more of the things that I enjoy, rather than cleaning the house: things like exercise, or gardening, or visiting my mom. Perhaps, once Mr. PiN has more free time, we will take the 3-day weekend trips I envisioned last year.
And if, perchance, I have more energy and time to think about my Curious List? Well, I think that would be a bonus, whether I use my Mondays to pursue it, or use time on another day.
Any thoughts about getting the most out of my Mondays?