How you spend your time?

I work 7am to 4pm. I am at home so I walk an hour most day with a friend at lunch. I have DS at home. He plays soccer and golf so I am still transporting him to stuff or watching his activities. After work I like to read or watch tv. I am still involved with the Boy Scout and Girl Scouts orgs. I’m a merit badge counselor at BS and help the advancement chair. For GS I review Gold Award proposals and sometimes offer training for the higher awards. I have significantly scaled back in volunteering tho due to Covid. But those orgs gave me and my children a lot of joy and experiences. And I have met the best people too!

eta I don’t feel guilty how I spend my time. DH has been doing puzzles and legos. My DD is at college now so I feel like with only one kid in the house there’s a lot more me time!

The day to day of my job as a teacher has me going a mile a minute. I am trying to shape their academic, social, and emotional lives.  I am putting out fires in the building.  I have students who are looking at homelessness, abuse, fear, and anxiety.  I give them everything I have the entire school day and they know how to get in touch with me if they don't feel safe at night.
I need downtime that is mindless.

I am also taking a couple of classes.

Personally, I think anything that you enjoy as long as you aren't ignoring responsibilities is a great use of your time.

We are empty nesters. My time is spent to all the everyday jobs to keep the house running. I’m not as ridge as my mother was. I don’t do things on a certain days, except washing, and I can be lead astray from that with a better offer.

I spend time with my dog and care for her. I brush her every day and she seldom lets me off the hook on that.

The rest of the day I read, work on whatever craft projects that I have going on. I go to lunch with my friends and watch tv.

Basically, DH and I split the chores. The outside belongs to him and the inside is mine. The past couple of weeks I have working in the yard. This as come about because he has let a lot of things go, mostly because his arthritis has been bothering him and frankly he doesn’t give a damn. I have sort of been enjoying getting out there and fleshing up the yard. He as been coming out with me and we have tackled it together. My standards are much higher than his and I realize that is my issue.

On the whole, I don’t feel guilty about how I spend any of my time. I worked for my retirement and feel free to do what I want.

This is something I'm struggling with now. I retired from 40 years of teaching elementary school a year and a half ago. We immediately started building a new home in a new state and moved 6 months later. Due to slow-downs and delays due to Covid we spent another good 8 months getting furniture bought and things about the house finished up and just generally getting settled. Kept us very busy and always thinking ahead and planning. All of a sudden, this fall things mostly fell into place and I found myself with days with nothing to do!

I thought retirement would be easy. I was a teacher and was used to summer break. I figured retirement was going to be one long summer break. Think again! The two are nothing alike! I had lots of plans of things I wanted to do when I retired. A huge stash of scrapping supplies that I was going to use. I would finally have time to practice my piano and hammered dulcimer. I had a stash of books to read. I would volunteer at the local theater and the local school. We had a list of places we were going to travel to in our new home state. I was prepared to have this wonderful retirement. Covid put a crimp in some of those plans, but I had plenty to keep me busy at home.

So, here I was with all the time in the world, things to do, and I couldn't bring myself to find the motivation to do any of it. And then I'd feel guilty when I'd spend a whole day pretty much doing nothing. Chores around the house didn't get done in the timeframe that I thought they should and then I'd feel more guilt. I was a hot mess for a bit! Thanks to a wonderful husband and a good bit of prayer (spending time really thinking things through) I'm starting to figure this out. I've realized that I don't have to feel guilty for not working. I worked hard for 40 years. I've earned the money that got us to this place and it's okay if I enjoy it. And, just because I have this time doesn't mean I have to fill every minute of it. Time is different now. There are days when I go full-steam ahead and get a lot done and there are days when I spend most of the day sitting on the porch and looking at those lovely mountains - and snow! We didn't have much of that in the 47 years I lived in south Florida! As long as the things that have to be done are getting done in a timely fashion, my time is my own to do with as I choose.

I'm learning to take small steps and make small changes. I'm learning that I don't have to do it all at once. Yes, I'm getting old. Yes, I don't know what the future holds, but I'm learning to focus on the thought that the future could quite possible hold many more years for me. I think I sort of thought life was coming to an end quickly now that I'm retired, but that's not necessarily what will happen, and not the way I want to live whatever time I have left. There are still days when I feel myself falling into that rut again, but I'm learning how to turn it around. This type-A, overachiever, OCD specialist is learning what it really means to relax not only my behavior, but also my mind and my heart.

I just did an exercise in my midlife coaching program about free time and specifically about self judgment we may have around doing "nothing" and I discovered that I have really eased up on the pressure I put on myself to "get things done."
I've basically outsourced tasks I refuse to do anymore, created a minimum baseline for the various tasks and self care that I will commit to everyday, and I'm working on strengthening the relationships I have that are important to me (including with myself). After that, I have decided that whatever I do is 100% my choice. If I find I am not enjoying myself, I examine why I chose to do that thing. I'm really honing in on what works for me and creates a feeling of satisfaction

I am 70. I have worked all of my adult life except for 5 years when my son was born before he started school. I currently work the school schedule w/summers off and I work a 6 hour day through the school year as a lunch lady. Dh and I are home, Ds 26 lives not far from us. I do most of the housework and laundry, Dh cooks and mows the yard, and he farms. I spend a lot of my free time on myself. I am an avid reader, still do some scrapbooking, play guitar and sing, and waste a lot of time on the internet reading social media, this board, and playing a few games. I try to walk outside five or six times a week, especially when I’m not working.

All this to say that I know I could be much more productive in my spare time, but I don’t have an overwhelming desire to do that. If my house is in reasonable order, and laundry fairly well kept up, I do not feel the least bit of guilt or pressure if I sit and read for two or three hours at a time, or spend a few hours jamming with my son in the kitchen (he is a really good singer/musician and nothing makes me happier than to pick and grin with him!)

Life is too short - as said above, do what brings you joy as long as you are not neglecting the basic stuff that you are responsible for. Play that bass, and crochet all the stuff!

I putter around some days, and some days I do more chores, but as we are both retired we mostly do what we want. my husband has been dealing with his broken leg for 8 months. so I am spending time doing a lot of things I don't really want to do like walk the dog, do all chores (I do have housecleaner) manage almost all the daily life stuff..all the cooking, all the hauling, help my child who has autism.so I am the support person. and with my dad dying last fall, I now have to manage my sister's money and affairs.. (she has severe mental illness) long distance..
and I still volunteer with girl scouts.
so I have less time to just do whatever than I would like. there are things I want to do but can't.
but at least I am getting more stuff organized in my house. and my dh will be off his crutches in a few weeks. (not totally healed, just able to get about more.. moving to trekking poles).
I don't feel bad doing anything I want.. but just limited by life stuff.

I've been a sahm for over 20 years. I scrapbook, sew, research family history, read, and surf the internet/play Farmville in my free time - oh and we got a rowing machine so there's that also. I have a LOT more free time this year than I ever have. There's only DD15 left at home - and she's gone 710 to between 430 and 530 every day. DH rarely works from home even with the pandemic - usually only if DD15 is sick with a fever (due to his company's covid policy) so he's gone 8-530/6 but does come home for lunch.

We have a bigger house than we used to (move about a year ago) but it's easier to keep up with - with less people at home, there is less laundry, less dishes (and I got a dishwasher for Christmas!!), less clutter. We have a smaller yard and I'm not technically responsible for it - although I do some work out there, there isn't an expectation that I do so it's usually by choice.

Some days I accomplish a lot - some days I manage dishes, laundry, and a shower - hopefully

Looking in from out I'm guessing I seem to "waste" a lot of time. Sometimes I'm okay with it as it's what I need and enjoy at the moment.
When I'm down and/or stuck in that proverbial rut, it bothers me. I need to get out or do more but the times have limited that. Like my dinners in the dinner thread, my days and what I do seem more than not to be in punt or whim mode.

When it is deemed safe (by docs) I want to volunteer somewhere to have some bit of schedule/ to do list that I enjoy but is kind of preplanned.

Interesting discussion. I don't engage in activities that I think are a waste of time, but I know others do. 

I don't think any of my in-laws have read a book since leaving school and they really don't get the joy reading brings to me. DH reads, but it is almost all business, self help, health & fitness type stuff. I can count on one hand the number of fiction books I've seen him read. One was a novel I brought to the hospital when DD was born. 

When I'm with my 3 BFFs, 2 of us are always talking/trading books and making recommendations. One of the four can't believe we can read as much as we do but she exercises 3 times as much as me and will always pick doing something over curling up with a book. The 4th is kind of half way between us.

My dad tried to raise us to always get chores and projects done first. Mom was more relaxed and just hoped we'd get it done before dad got home. Much to dad's dismay, I will read or craft and procrastinate all the chores. Unless it is the rare day I wake up and feel the need to deep clean the house from top to bottom.