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A Sixty and Me contributor recommends reviewing the previous week to identify activities that felt energizing and the obligations or routines that crowded them out. The advice is based on the writer’s personal experience, not a reported research finding or a tested retirement-planning program.
A Sixty and Me contributor has proposed a practical way for people approaching or living in retirement to identify what brings them joy: review the previous week, rate five to seven activities, and notice what took up time. The approach comes from the writer’s own experience and is presented as a reflection exercise, not as a research-backed guarantee of greater well-being.
The writer says that in early September she listed the parts of retirement she most wanted to prioritize: friends, art, nature, writing, family and health. But when she checked her calendar, coaching work and related tasks had taken over much of her week. She had retired from a university the previous year and chose to include coaching women through retirement in her own retirement plans, while finding that repeated edits to newsletters, blog posts, a website and other materials were taking more time than intended.
A day she enjoyed helped her see that the issue was not simply which activities mattered, but the order in which they happened. Her account lists coffee with her husband and cat, a walk and breakfast with a friend, knitting and art, one newsletter task, gardening, a bath and a television show, errands, dinner and a late-night walk. She says that putting enjoyable activities before work helped keep work in proportion; on other days, work came first and left less room for the rest.
Her suggested exercise is to list five to seven activities from the previous week, including both chosen and obligatory tasks, and score each from minus 5 to plus 5. A high score represents an activity that felt energizing or connecting; a low score represents one that felt draining or tense. She suggests looking for patterns among the highest-rated activities, then considering what came first on the best days and what occupied more time than intended.
A Practical Way to Track Retirement Priorities
The exercise turns a broad question—what will make retirement satisfying?—into an examination of real activities and time use. That may be useful to people who find it difficult to name what they enjoy when asked to imagine a future routine, as well as to retirees who feel unsure how to structure a day. It also draws attention to the gap between stated priorities and what a calendar actually contains.
The writer’s account points to scheduling, not just discovering interests, as a possible challenge. Someone may already know that friendship, creativity or time outdoors matters, yet still find those activities displaced by work or other demands. The essay does not show that its scoring method improves retirement outcomes; it offers a personal tool for reflection and planning.
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From a Retirement List to a Real Week
The essay’s starting point is the contributor’s own transition: she says she retired from a university the year before and made coaching part of her retirement. She valued client conversations, but describes the accompanying cycle of revising and polishing materials as the work that crowded out other interests. Her journal captured the strain of that pattern: “I’m constantly finding ways to improve and it’s exhausting me.”
She also references researcher and author Brené Brown’s description of joy as “an intense feeling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure, and appreciation.” That wording is used to explain the writer’s understanding of joy; the essay does not present it as evidence that the week-scoring exercise has been scientifically validated. The writer says she plans to block time for art lessons, hiking, exercise, a women’s group and friends after returning from vacation.
““An intense feeling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure, and appreciation.””
— Brené Brown, as quoted in the Sixty and Me essay
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What the Exercise Cannot Establish
The source is a personal essay, and it does not report a study, participant data or evidence that scoring a week causes people to feel more satisfied in retirement. It is unclear whether the exercise has been evaluated beyond the contributor’s own experience. The scoring scale is subjective, and readers may interpret “joy,” energy or obligation differently.
The essay also does not provide a detailed method for handling unusual weeks, long-term caregiving, health limits, financial pressures or work schedules that leave little choice about how time is spent. It offers reflection questions rather than a full retirement plan, and the writer does not claim the exercise resolves those constraints.
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The Writer Plans to Rework Her Calendar
The contributor says her first week back from vacation includes client sessions, alongside planned time for art lessons, hiking, the gym, a women’s group and friends. She intends to block those activities on her calendar and sometimes use a checklist for the next day when she senses her schedule is losing balance.
For readers, the next step proposed in the essay is to review a recent week, include ordinary activities such as a phone call or short walk, and look at both ratings and timing. The article does not announce a formal program or a measured outcome; any effect of changing the schedule remains to be seen.
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Key Questions
What is the week-review exercise?
List five to seven things you did last week, including activities you chose and obligations. Rate each from minus 5 to plus 5 based on how energizing or draining it felt, then look for patterns and consider how your time was ordered.
Is this exercise only for people who have retired?
No. The contributor suggests that people who are still working can rate the whole week, including time outside work, to see which activities they may want more of in retirement. People already retired can include small activities, such as a call or a walk.
Does the essay show that the exercise improves well-being?
No. The source describes the contributor’s personal experience and proposes a reflection tool. It does not report research showing that the exercise produces better retirement or health outcomes.
What did the writer learn from her enjoyable day?
She says that fitting in activities such as time with a friend, knitting and art before doing a work task helped keep coaching work from taking over the day. Her takeaway was that timing and order mattered alongside the activities themselves.
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