How much time do you like to allow between waking up and needing to leave your home?

How are you spending your early retirement days, Randy?
Apart from keeping fit and answerMug, do you have other hobbies?
Are you a member of any local social groups?
How does the family feel now that you're at home so much more?

  Wow, you're really forcing me to face my inner demons, aren't you?  Well, the good news is that while there is a demon sitting on one shoulder whispering in my ear, there's an angel on the other shoulder whispering in the other ear.   My inner demons are such that I'm not really doing much of anything (yet).  I guess I should probably feel a bit guilty for not doing much of anything, but I don't, because there's truly not much that needs to get done.
  In the topsy-turvy world of Covid-19, the on-again, off-again reopening of businesses has a hold on the volunteer prospects that I was going to pursue.  I had lined up the local blood bank, a community recreation center, a library program for reading to the blind and reading to children, Meals-On-Wheels for elderly and shut-ins as possibilities, but everyone is skittish about the dangers of unknown factors exacerbating the problem.  The social groups are also off-limits for the time being.  Covid cases are rebounding after an initial decrease, and there is talk of further or recurring shutdowns.
  On the positive side, or the productive side, like you stated, physical exercise is tops on my list, and I'm now getting plenty of that, at least four or five days weekly.  Unbridled, I might have gone for exercising seven days a week, but even I know that that's overkill and can actually backfire.  The body needs time to recover, especially depending on how strenuous the exercise is.  I'm please with my results, and so is my wife, so as long as I'm not only keeping the pounds away but also toning up, it's a win-win.  One of my venues is a local lake that has trails going around its banks, 6.7 miles (10.7 kilometers) distance, and just yesterday a young guy who was just finishing his workout surprised me by saying, "Wow, you run a lot, I see you here almost every time I come."  The other parts of staying in shape are diet and sleeping habits, both of which have improved for me.  I had been accustomed to four or five hours of sleep per night for many years, and people always told me it would catch up to me negatively one day or some day, but being as highly energetic and extremely high-strung as I am, I always shrugged them off.  I still don't believe it caused me a lot of detriment, but now it's behind me as I get between seven to nine hours nightly.  I feel completely rested, and in some ways, just as or more energetic than ever.
  In addition to staying in shape, I'm the Chief Gardener around here all of a sudden.  My wife still works part-time, so she's gone for four days out of the week.  I take care of her vegetable garden (just today I scored a grand victory over the Aphid Army and its counterparts, the Others Pests, but I digress, that is another long story that I contemplate writing about separately) and my four rose bushes.  We also have a lemon tree and an orange tree.  Of course, there is always Honey-Do List that she has for me, it's not very extensive, so I do keep busy.  I've also become Chief Dishwasher around here by default, but there's no way on earth that she'll let me in that kitchen hovering over the stove or in front of the oven; she doesn't want her stomach getting pumped several times weekly.  Outside of the house, I'm a self-appointed ambassador of keeping the neighborhood clean; I go on these solo excursions of litter-abatement.  I have a whole rig set up for it, an improvised cart on two wheels that carries a collapsible canvas trash "barrel", a rake, a broom, a claw-like spike and several plastic trash bags.  A few times a week, I'll spend an hour or two (or four) either along my street, the woods behind the houses, local bus stops, parking lots of businesses, a thoroughfare, any place that has been uglied by the presence of overflowing bombardments of litter.  I don my sun hat, yellow reflective vest, earphones playing my 1970s or 1980s music, and immerse myself in my projects.
  As for my family, it's just my wife here at the house with me; or children do not live here.  One is about 11 minutes away and the other is about 11 hours away.  My wife is overall pleased with the increased time we have together, having been accustomed to her marriage to a workaholic and now having him home all the time.  Just this week she asked me for the first time how I'm doing in retirement, what is my perception of it and whether or not I wanted to do something else.  I told her, "Meh, I don't really think about it."  There may be a day that I'll agonize over it or become abjectly bored, but for the time being, it's a bit like being on vacation.  I have a stress level of about zero, down forma previous level of about one on a scale of one to ten.
  Well, thank you for asking, and for  giving me a platform from which to soapbox.

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Nice routine! Thanks for your reply. 

 

  You’ve brought up a very good point: when public transportation or a carpool is involved, daily routines are more closely dependent upon schedules that require strict timing. I worked a job that even though there were expected arrival times (no punching of a clock with a timecard or  stern-faced manager standing at the entrance with a clipboard and a stopwatch), we were a bit flexible on starting work every morning as long as we put in a full 8-hour shift.  For that reason, I didn’t maintain a daily routine like yours, and also because my often days varied: gym workouts, breakfast some days, no breakfast other days, reporting to a different location every now and then, various projects with different starting times, etc.
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During the early years of my working career, law firms were fairly strict about start times.  In those days, taking a slightly later subway train enabled me to get a seat and it only made me late by about 10 minutes, but every day I heard about it, even though I shortened my lunch hour by however many minutes I was late.  After I moved to where I live now, the ability to get a seat and get to work on time was easier, so I no longer worried about it.  

  Perfect!

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Sounds like you've got it down to a science!

It's interesting to me that even though I used to take more time "primping" than I do now, I like to allow more time to get ready for the day. I never eat breakfast, but coffee time is essential! 

Before COVID-19, I did about 50% of my work from home. It's going to be an adjustment when I start doing more face-to-face meetings again. I'm slowly easing myself back into it now. 

When my hair is short, as I've been wearing it for a long time now, I don't have to fuss with it.  It's pretty much wash-n-wear.  That used to take up more time than anything else.  

This is the first time I've ever worked from home.  At first, I didn't like it, but I've gotten used to it and I'm going to continue this way until my administrator tells me I have to come in to the office.  It's a little inconvenient not having all the services available at home, but I'll manage. :)