Embrace the Boredom Folks!
We’re 53 and have been retired for a decade. Do we ever get bored? Oh yes. We went from 50+ hours of working and commuting to zero. That’s a lot of hours to fill with, erm, something?
Some folks slip into retirement effortlessly. They’ve no fear of boredom. They’ve a hundred things to keep them busy.
Others, like me, worried about it. What on Earth would I do with all that free time? Would I go a bit mad? Would I turn to drink?
For a few years it wasn’t an issue. We filled the years with travel and this blog tells the tale. We ambled around Europe and North Africa in our motorhome, rarely getting bored as there was always somewhere else to visit, to explore and read about.
But endless travel became a bit stale over time. Some folks keep travelling for decades, but that wasn’t for us. Yep, we love getting out and about, but we also missed the real-world human connection which comes from being part of a static community.
So we bought and renovated a house near our parents, and mixed up travel in the van with air travel and time at home.
When we’re out traveling, again boredom is rarely an issue. While we’re at home boredom has become a useful driver to action, rather than something to be anxious about.
This is what I mean:
You might not fancy any of the ‘traditional’ things folks are supposed to do in early retirement: travel, gardening, learning a language, learning a musical instrument, volunteering, a part time job and so on. They’re all great things to try, but not all of them are for everyone.
If you think about it though, that excludes only tiny percentage of the things you **could** do. Our imaginations tend to get dulled with decades of work. Try sharpening up a little, let your brain loosen up, and see what comes to mind.
We’ve tried all sorts. Neither of us ‘work’ as such, but we do self-publish books on Amazon, and could extend this if we wanted to. We also run an AirBnB, which again doesn’t take much work but keeps us busy from time to time. I’ll often feel at a loose end so head up the gym or out for a run, listening to music and enjoying feeling my body work.
Ju is into language learning. I’m not, but do enjoy keeping up to date with technology. AI with its enormous range of uses is fascinating me at the moment. I’ve used it to write code for a running club website I manage, to read documents for me, to create graphics and help with a hundred other tasks.
AI is also a fantastic generator of ideas. Fire up the free version of ChatGPT or CoPilot or whatever AI app’s on your phone. Type in ‘I’m bored’ or ‘Ideas for low-cost activities’ and hit enter. See what comes back. Most of it won’t work for you, but there’ll be the odd shiny nugget in there.
This blog’s another example of boredom driving a bit of creativity. I was at a loose end for an hour, so wrote this post. It might end up helping someone, in which case it was a productive use of an hour. A positive result of me being a bit bored.
In summary: boredom has proved a useful driver for me. It forces me to look for new things to do and try. New books to read, exercise to do, blog posts and books to write, areas to research and so on. Rarely has it had me doing housework mind you, but it has been known!
What about you? Do you worry about not having enough to keep you busy in retirement? Or have you retired and are busier than you’ve ever been?
Cheers, Jay
Do you really need to ask! 😜 Always busy 😁
Well, this was a timely post! Four weeks into ‘retirement’ and I am trying to navigate these waters too.
We’re currently occupied by renovations on our house, but I do worry I should be ‘doing stuff’ on the days when we have some down time, or just don’t fancy ‘more’ painting. (Husband is just happy to have the time and luxury to read). After 40 years of working full time, we’re finding it hard to adjust and allow ‘boredom’ to be the driver of ‘invention’….but no doubt we will become more skilled at this in the coming months.
Not missing work at all, but the ‘freedom’ ahead is somewhat daunting until you come to terms with it…..but we’ll get there I am sure!
Hi Jay.
Being some 20+ years ahead of you let me fill you in on my retirement. Thanks to E.on/HP’s offer to leave the field for an early bath at 63 I threw myself, as a serial house renovator, into a new build plan. That took up every moment of at least the next 2 years and once all the moving parts had settled down Carol and I cracked on with ‘traditional’ retirement- getting involved in community groups such as film clubs, village shows etc which resulted in us rising to positions of authority through the virtue of our business-acquired skills . Basically as organisers other people looked to us to help their organisations to grow, which was great for a while but you begin to realise that the Indians end up relying on the chiefs to do ALL their thinking and actions, so we rowed our activities back and began concentrating on selfish paths – jewellery for Carol and off-roading for me.
Within 3 years we were bored! So we decided to build another house – our ‘forever’ house and the 2 year project consumed us again. Great. All settled. Then along comes the Big C for Carol and our notions of living in our new place forever began to change shape due to the fact that family support was usually a few hours away. Having good neighbours is one thing but at the end of the day they are not going to wipe your bum when your at the drivelling stage of life!
The off-roading took its toll on my not very bouncy body (falling off at 20mph hurts even more at 70+ than you would think) as well. So when our son suggested moving closer to him for the security of close support we burned our ‘forever’ house bridges, sold up and moved 200 miles to Cheshire.
Now we are back to the house renovation skills part of our life so the boredom threshold is away in the distance. I have rediscovered my love of guitar by joining a group of retirees who enjoy a good old rock’n’roll session and Carol is inveigling herself into several community groups – environmental and social. I got into woodworking a few years ago at new build 2 and am in the process of converting half a double garage into a workshop. Bored? Not yet? Busy ? Definitely! Been looking into AI too but have not used it extensively so maybe I’ll use ChatGPT to set me up with a life plan for a future without boredom? Who knows what I will be doing this time next year. Ballet? Water ski? Vlogging? The possibilities are truly endless.
Love to Ju and you. Keep up the good work on your blog Young Whippersnappers.
Cheers Ken.
Great to hear from you Ken, thanks for taking the time to write mate. Whippersnappers, love it, I can’t say I’m feeling very young these days! I’m in awe of you getting into off-roading, it did me in in my 30s, never mind 70s. You’re living an inspirational life Ken, plenty food for thought in your words above. Cheers, Jay