| I always say I'll never fully retire. I enjoy what I do, and, unlike many other jobs, writing and editing don't require a lot of physical exertion. Plus, I tell people, working offers a way to keep my brain sharp. What I don't usually tell them is that I'm afraid that once I don't have the familiar framework of assignments and deadlines, I won't get anything done. I am very deadline oriented. If my days aren't filled with chunks of time that need to be devoted to something, they're often filled with a whole lot of nothing much. Sometimes, this is great; I love days when nothing is on the calendar, and there are no urgent chores, and I can read or putter around. But that's only because the rest of my time is pretty scheduled. Looking back on weekends when my daughters were young and I had to drive them places and attend sports competitions and grocery shop and make meals, I realize that I got a lot more accomplished then than I do on weekends today. To be fair, there are also many more distractions – infinite television series to stream and social media posts to read and YouTube videos to watch – to steal unstructured time. Say, I needed to repot some plants. Nowadays, I would probably plop down in front of the smart TV and look for a YouTube video about how to repot succulents. But then I might play the one about how to deal with them when they're overgrown (I hate that spindly look) and even the one about making a succulent garden, because that might be better than potting them individually. It might be ages before I actually got around to potting them, and by then it would probably be raining. If I had to pick up a kid from their friend's house in an hour, however, I'd watch one video and be done. Or, to be even faster, I'd probably just look it up in Google on my phone. That's why the idea of loads of spare time hasn't always appealed to me. And I felt vindicated when I read Angela Haupt's story, "Why having too much free time can be as bad for you as having too little." Angela writes that research shows "an individual's well-being increases in correlation with their free time — but only to a certain point. While having too little free time isn't healthy, having too much also diminishes well-being." The reason? People feel a lack of purpose. You can read Angela's story for tips about making your free time purposeful. One way, and a reminder I think many of us need, is to stop considering it wasteful. Instead, focus on the higher-end goal of enjoying leisure, which is that it will make you less harried, and thus a better spouse, parent or friend. Sure, the plants might not get repotted in as timely a fashion. But you'll be more relaxed, and you'll even know how to make a succulent garden. Take care. | 
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