Retirement is an incredible stage of life to reach. You no longer have to rush to the office or stay late; there are no more deadlines or production quotas you have to meet. You have time to relax, to get together with friends, spend time with the grandkids, read that book you’ve been meaning to get to. What could go wrong? Well, according to the researchers at Harvard, quite a lot. As a matter of fact, studies they did showed that seniors who retired had a 40% higher rate of stroke and heart attack as those who didn’t. And the reason was that older adults who no longer worked had trouble having a productive retirement.
Why is being productive in retirement so hard?
If you’ve retired or you have friends who did, you probably know at least one answer:
Time. Too much of it, that is.
After years – decades! – of getting up at a certain time, going to work, lunch break, work, home, supper, maybe some more work, bed, our bodies get accustomed to having a specific time for everything. Stay-at-home moms have a similar day: Get the kids to school, go home, laundry, errands, housework, carpool, cook supper, bedtime, dishes – so much to do in such little time. It all boils down to the same thing: Doing, doing, doing, trying to beat the clock.
And then retirement happens.
Suddenly there’s no clock to beat and nothing that has to be done. No meetings, no deadlines, no carpool. The whole day stretches out in front of you, with all its possibilities. It’s amazingly liberating.
Yet you end up doing nothing. You want to learn a new language, but you can’t find the time to do it. You want to get more exercise and you find yourself becoming a couch potato. If it weren’t for actual scheduled activities, it feels like you’d never do anything.
It’s frustrating, but it’s not uncommon.
Once the mind and body have gotten used to constantly being on the go, it’s hard to be productive when there’s no set time for anything. As if that weren’t enough, things like learning a new skill or reaching a new fitness goal mean you need to be on the ball and ready with a lot of mental concentration – something that, as the body and mind age, becomes more difficult to access.
Bummer. But there are ways to work around these obstacles that can be really helpful in making each day productive, fulfilling and full of achievement.
One of those ways is the pomodoro technique.
What’s the pomodoro technique?
If you’re familiar with Italian, so you know that “pomodoro” means “tomato.” Back to that in a minute.
The pomodoro technique was developed in the 1990s by an Italian entrepreneur named Francesco Cirillo. He based it on his experience as a university student, when he used to handle exams and other projects by using a timer. He’d set the timer for 25 minutes and work straight, maintaining total focus for that time. When the timer buzzed, he took a five minute break. He did that four times, then took a longer break.
That timer was tomato-shaped – hence the “pomodoro” technique. (Which just goes to show how branding is everything.)
The pomodoro technique for productive retirement.
Now that you know the principle behind the pomodoro technique, you can tweak it to help you make your retirement more productive than ever.
You’ll need a timer (does not have to be shaped like a tomato), paper, and something to write with.
Let’s say you’ve always wanted to learn Portuguese. Now you’ve retired, and you finally have the time to do it – but it’s really overwhelming. Here’s what you do:
- Make a plan of action. Decide how you want to go about learning Portuguese. Online, free? Online paid? Books and tapes? Whichever you choose, break the process down into units of accomplishment. For instance, one unit might be to learn how each letter is pronounced.
- Find a label. Make up a “label” for your session. Write it at the top of your paper.
- Set your timer. You don’t have to work in 25-minute increments, by the way. You can set the timer for shorter or longer periods of time.
- Get to work. Start working on the first unit. Stay focused. Shut off your phone. Close your inbox. You are in Portuguese zone now.
- Take a break. The timer buzzed! Mark a check on your paper. Now you get to take a five minute break. Stretch, take a drink, look out the window, walk down the hall. Whatever you enjoy.
- Back to work. After five minutes, set your timer again. Shut down all distractions and focus. Repeat this (including the checks on the paper!) until you’ve done four “pomodoros” (reps).
- Long break time! Congratulations! You’ve got 100 minutes of productivity behind you. Now take a longer break – 20-30 minutes – and do whatever you want. Check your inbox, do FaceTime with the grandkids, play backgammon with your spouse, go have a snack with your friend down the hall.
You can do this as many times a day as you want or need, with any task or project you want to accomplish.
Do you see yourself using the pomodoro technique to make your retirement more productive? We’d love to hear answer!
`