Adjusting to staying home or working from home is a challenge. I went through that adjustment when I retired, nearly four years ago.

I was fairly good at time management and productivity within the framework of a work schedule (weird as that schedule was: two night shifts a week and alternate Saturdays). When that framework went away, I had to learn new ways to get things done.

The most helpful thing I learned was to structure my time by activities rather than by schedule. I have a short list of things I want to accomplish each day; when to work on them is flexible. This is the antithesis of the way I worked at the Library—there my most important activities were scheduled: storytime on Mondays at 1 pm, attend a meeting 2-4 pm, Info Desk duty from 6-9 pm, that sort of thing.

By focusing on tasks rather than schedules, I can work around the messy events of an ordinary day: a bad night of sleep, a call or text from a friend, a special project that comes without warning, all that sort of rot.

For example, when first retired, I had a daily goal of writing for two hours in the afternoon. After months of missing that goal more often than not, I changed it to write x number of words per day. That worked a little better, but there was still room for improvement. Now I've assigned specific writing projects to specific days of the week. My Monday goal is to write 250-750 words on my review column; Tuesday to do the same amount on my in-progress memoir; etc. I'm doing so much better.

That's what works for me. If you're finding the transition to a home-based life challenging, try structuring your day by tasks instead of schedules. Let me know if it works for you.