Want More Joy In Retirement? Look At How You Spent Last Week

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A Sixty and Me contributor describes reviewing her calendar and a particularly satisfying day to see how work tasks crowded out activities she valued. She proposes scoring five to seven activities from the previous week and looking for patterns in what felt energizing and how the day was ordered. The exercise is personal guidance, not evidence that it will produce the same results for everyone.

A Sixty and Me contributor says reviewing her calendar and writing down one satisfying day helped her see how coaching tasks were crowding out activities she wanted in retirement. Her report proposes a practical exercise: list and score activities from the previous week, then look at which felt rewarding and what took up the time intended for them. The account offers a personal approach to clarifying priorities; it does not report research testing the exercise or establish that it will improve retirement satisfaction for others.

The writer says she retired from a university the previous year and made coaching women through retirement part of her own retirement plan. In early September, she listed what she hoped retirement would include: friends, art, nature, writing, family and health. When she compared the list with her calendar, however, she found that coaching-related work took up much of her week. She says she enjoys working with clients, but spent additional time revising newsletters and posts, adjusting her website and polishing materials.

A couple of days after making the list, she recorded a day she particularly enjoyed. It included coffee with her husband and cat, a walk and breakfast with a friend, knitting and art, one newsletter task, gardening, television, errands, dinner and a late-night walk. The writer’s takeaway was not that she needed to give up coaching, but that the order of activities mattered to her: on days when work came first, it could expand, while beginning with personally valued activities helped keep work tasks in proportion.

Her proposed exercise is to write down five to seven things from the previous week, including both chosen activities and obligations, and score each from minus five to plus five. She suggests examining the highest-scoring activities for shared qualities, such as being outdoors, spending time with others or making something. She also advises considering what came first on enjoyable days and whether any task took more time than intended. People still working can include work and non-work activities; those already retired can count small events, including a phone call or a walk around the block.

Turning Weekly Activities Into Clues

The report focuses on a common planning difficulty: naming what someone wants from retirement can be easier than making room for it in an ordinary week. The writer’s calendar gave her a concrete comparison between her stated priorities and actual use of time. Her example also distinguishes an activity she valued—coaching—from the extra preparation and revisions that, in her view, were taking more time than she intended.

For readers approaching retirement, reviewing a week that has already happened may offer a more specific starting point than trying to imagine an ideal future. For people already retired, recording small daily experiences can make the exercise possible even when a week does not feel especially eventful. These are the writer’s observations and recommendations, not a demonstrated outcome or a substitute for financial, health or other professional retirement planning.

How the Writer Found Her Pattern

The writer says she had retired from a university the year before the account and had chosen to keep working through coaching. Her first list captured activities she wanted her retirement to be built around, but looking at the calendar showed that her work-related tasks had taken precedence. She describes repeatedly refining business materials and says this effort felt exhausting, even though the client conversations themselves mattered to her.

The turning point in her account was writing down one day in detail, rather than relying on a general list of priorities. The activities she enjoyed were already on that list; what stood out was that she had done some of them before sitting down to write her newsletter. She says that sequence differed from her usual pattern of doing coaching tasks first and fitting other interests around them afterward. The report turns that personal observation into a weekly review exercise.

The article also refers to researcher and author Brené Brown’s description of joy as “an intense feeling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure, and appreciation.” That wording is presented as a definition close to the writer’s own understanding of joy. The source does not cite a study showing that scoring a week or changing the order of activities has a measured effect on wellbeing.

“An intense feeling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure, and appreciation.”

— Brené Brown, as quoted in the Sixty and Me report

Limits of One Personal Account

The report is a personal account and suggested exercise, not a study or survey. It does not establish how common the writer’s scheduling problem is, whether scoring a week changes people’s routines, or whether the method leads to greater satisfaction over time. The scale is subjective, and the report does not provide a standard for interpreting scores or comparing one person’s week with another’s.

The source also gives no publication date. The writer refers to making her list in early September and finishing the article while on vacation, but does not identify the year. It is not clear whether she later followed through on each calendar block or what effect those changes had. Her plans and reflections should not be read as evidence of an outcome.

The Writer’s Planned Calendar Changes

The writer says her first week home after vacation included client sessions and that she planned to block time for art lessons, hiking, gym visits, a women’s group and friends. She also says she may make a short checklist for the following day when she notices her schedule becoming unbalanced. The account does not report what happened after those plans were made.

For readers who want to try the exercise, the next step described in the report is to review a recent week, score a small selection of activities and identify patterns in both the activities and their order. Whether that review leads to a lasting change in a schedule remains a personal decision and is not assessed in the source.

Key Questions

What does the report suggest doing to identify activities that feel rewarding?

It suggests listing five to seven activities from the previous week, including obligations, and rating each from minus five to plus five based on how it felt. The writer recommends looking for qualities shared by the highest-scoring activities.

Why does the writer focus on the order of activities?

In her own experience, starting with coaching tasks sometimes allowed them to fill the day. She found that doing personally valued activities first helped keep those tasks in proportion. This is her observation, not a finding established for everyone.

Can someone who is still working use the exercise?

Yes. The report recommends including the whole week, both work and activities outside work. The purpose, as the writer describes it, is to notice what already feels rewarding and what someone may want more room for later.

Does the article show that the exercise increases retirement joy?

No. It presents a contributor’s personal experience and a suggested reflection exercise. It does not cite research measuring the exercise’s effects or show that it will increase satisfaction for other people.

Source: rss