That's exactly what I feel like I'm doing most of the time, it seems. I really must move this blog and my own website upgrades higher on my 'to do' list. Why is it so easy to over extend oneself, say 'yes' when you should say 'no'. When you're holding down an outside job you absolutely know you have committed eight hours plus whatever your commute time might be, so everything else has to fit into the time left. Not so when you're retired. You tend to think your time is your own. Well, it doesn't really work out like that. You still have family obligations, the accoutrements of living like grocery shopping, at least minimal housekeeping which includes laundry, cooking, bedmaking, vacuuming, ya da ya da ya da.
Then of course with all that time, you surely can volunteer for all the worthy causes that come knocking at your door, or phone or email. You don't want to feel like a no good slacker who doesn't care about the human race, or at least friends and neighbors and abused pets and hungry children. So you say 'yes' to all of them and one day you realize you're still spending most of your precious 24 hours per day on other people's concerns and the things you really want to do go wanting.
In my case, I envisioned a second career in writing after retirement. I've reached some milestones toward that end. Several stories I wrote have been published online and in anthologies. Self-pubbed some books. But I still find myself fighting for time to actually write. Even when I, as it felt like, 'woke up,' from about a year of being mired in dealing with widowhood. I no longer feel required to put three meals a day on the table, don't do as much laundry, etc. Instead I seem to have obligated myself to important volunteer work.
Organization I'm sure is the key. And choosing more carefully what I commit myself to when some of my activities end, as some are. Wish me luck.
