When we speak of time management, we usually think it relates exclusively to working class people or students. To be fair, there’s a good reason for this, and that’s because the busiest, most socially engaged people on Earth are those in their youth, or in the labor force (students and workers).
From university level, the age bracket between a student and those involved in economic activities is about 18 years – 65 years. The age of 65 upwards is usually the retirement age for most people.
Retirement doesn’t necessarily mean inactivity, far from it. In fact it is advisable for a retiree to keep busy with other relevant activities. You shouldn’t retire “from” something, you should retire “to” something.
A Harvard University study which focused on 8 men who retired at the age of 65 revealed that 7 out of them were dead on or before age 75. What this means is that inactivity could actually shorten your days on Earth.
In recent years, more elderly people have kept themselves busy with several activities. They wake up early, go through their schedule for the day & plan meetings. They also have other jobs to attend to, it could be for profit or charity. Seniors tend to physically show interest or contribute to the lives of their children or grand children.
Let’s not forget, elderly people go to the gym too. They also go to the movies and take vacations.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with leaving full time employment in your old age, just remember to take your time management skills with you as you leave.
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Time Management Tips For Elders
Here are some time management tips for elders –
1. Make A List Of All Activities
To manage your time better, making a list of all your activities would be really helpful. When I say all your activities, I mean all, even sleep!
Honestly, I don’t expect elders to remember all their activities at a sitting, so you may need a few days to put this list of activities together. As you remember an activity, quickly pen it down so you won’t forget.
To maximize the efficiency of this list of activities, you need to separate regularly scheduled activities from occasionally scheduled activities.
2. Prioritize The List
This simply means determining the activities that are most important to you. You may not be sure which ones are more important when you first make the list, but you can always come back and update the list later.
3. Be Passionate About Your Personal Goals
When you find a reason to live, you will find a reason to be more focused. Knowing what you want to achieve is just as important in old age as it is in youth.
Take your personal goals seriously and give them 100% attention. Having a passion to accomplish your personal goals keep you focused, and a focused person manages his/her time better.
Your personal goals should also be on your to-do-list. Break down the steps you need to take to achieve these goals and follow them religiously.
These goals could be anything, it could be building a farmhouse, or starting a podcast.
Whatever it is, be passionate about it and the focus you get from the passion would help you manage your time better.
4. Use Electronic Reminders
In a case where you’re not up for writing down your activities on paper, you could always put them down on the notepad or calendar of your smartphone or tablet and set reminders.
With the use of smart devices, an alarm will go off when it’s time for you to carry out listed tasks.
Using electronic reminders has an advantage over writing on plain paper. The major advantage is that you may forget to go through your activity list for the day (on paper), which means you’re likely to skip one or two, or attend to them late when you eventually remember.
This is not to say that writing down your to-do-list on paper doesn’t have it’s own advantages, because it does. The advantage of writing down activities on paper is that it keeps you sharper mentally, as you have made it a task to go through the list everyday.
5. Be Flexible
Flexibility is a major part of time management. Don’t shy away from adjusting your schedules if need be.
Some tasks may be more important than others, so if you put the less important ones first and you see reason to adjust along the line, then feel free to do so.
Being rigid with your schedules won’t help. Adjust if necessary!
Use Of Wristwatches
As you get older, the brain becomes less effective and your vision starts to depreciate. For an elderly person to manage his/her time properly, they of course need to be able to tell the time.
This would be difficult with regular wristwatches, since the numbers on them are written in small, hard-to-read fonts. Luckily, there are special watches for seniors that are easy to read.
Best Watches For Seniors
It is true that all watches tell time, however some are specifically made for seniors. There are watches with bold prints, while there are others that “speak” the time. They come in different shapes and sizes, some are analog and some are digital.
An ideal watch for a senior is one that has the numbers written out boldly, as eyesight is usually an issue for elders. It’s a plus if the watch has a bold date and day display!
You can go online and shop for the best watches for seniorsas well as easy to read watches for seniors. Special watches like these would help you keep time, even with diminishing memories and vision.
Conclusion
Time management is a skill everyone of age should have. It will help you live a better, more organized life.
Remember to make lists of daily, weekly or monthly activities and attend to the more important ones first.
Also keep in mind that flexibility is key to properly manage the time you dedicate to certain activities.
I hope this short piece on time management for the elderly has been of great help.
Good luck!