Sometimes, just doing one thing is too much. Occasionally I need a robe day.
I too, would love to do just one outside activity a day, but I have a husband with twice my energy and two good knees.. He asks if I'd like to run an errand or two with him, always with the option of waiting for him in the car if it's a quick pick up or drop off. Two errands always turn into six or so with lunch squeezed in the middle. When we arrive back home, I'm done for the day. Anything that did not get done before leaving home in the morning, certainly does not get done after returning. I have only the energy to sit in my big soft chair and wait until it's 5 o'clock somewhere and have a lovely glass of wine. I feel like an old mule who has dug her heels into the ground and says, "I'm done with the running for today. Hopefully there is something in the freezer we can have for dinner.."

Yes, back in "Once upon a time land", life was all about time management. The necessary disturbance we called work took up so much of our time. We learned how to multi-task. We took a route home that would allow us to drive (or walk) by the grocery, the bank, and the takeout Chinese place without altering our course. We became experts at not wasting even one minute. All for nothing. All that great training now has little or no use. Now it's not a matter of "Do I have the time" , but "How far is it and how am I going to get there." and how much walking will I have to do. Thank heavens for strip malls that have a bank, supermarket, drug store, Dunkin Donuts and a pizza joint all within 100 feet of each other.

Well, my head would be on the table by the time lunch rolled around! Hmm, no, long before I'd implode.
I've always done less than others - worked at a slower pace. Thorough, responsible but low on psychic and physical energy. However, we did raise 3 fine kids, so not so bad. I could not have done what so many other women did/do and held a paying job too. But we all work with what we have and no one has a free ride.
Now that I'm old I have an excuse! Hurray!!
One of our daughters-in-law - a rather probing type - has asked many times, with energy, "But what do you DO?!!! And, of course, she wont get it till she's there. No one gets it even if they try. It's rather like having childbirth explained to you and then you give birth ....Holy cow! (not unlike giving birth to that cow!)

Just an add on -
In order to be a stay at home parent, we did without many, many things our "equals" had.
That was fine, it was our choice and our trade off. And some of those things were bare essentials to most people. Thought I'd mention it because I didn't want to give the impression of ..."sitting on a cushion sewing a fine seam."

Thanks notdotdot, you made me laugh :-) And anyone who's raised 3 fine kids doesn't need to apologize for anything!

I find that I must prepare myself mentally and physically before I undertake a journey out of the house. I may be becoming agoraphobic, I don't know.

When I make an appointment I am disconcerted if they want to see me right away -- I need a week to prepare: I must wash and style my hair, that's one day. Then I must take a bath, that's another day. If it's a doctor's visit, I must write down my symptoms and/or concerns, that's another day. I must also decide what to wear and make sure the outfit is clean and pressed. I have to gather my medications to take with me -- they never look at them, but they insist that I bring them. (I think it's because they're afraid that patients sell the meds and I hate feeling that anyone would think that about me. It makes me feel guilty even though I've done nothing wrong and I take the meds exactly as prescribed. In fact, by only prescribing 30 pills per month, they are purposely shorting me pills nearly every month.)

I feel like a prisoner in my own home, but I hate going out. We live outside a small rural town without restaurants except for fast food places -- to visit the doctor we have to drive to a larger town an hour away and deal with rush traffic that we can never seem to accurately predict.

My husband would prefer to run additional errands on the same day, but it wears me out just to wait the interminably long time to see the doctor, especially if she decides to have blood drawn or other tests, that I am worn out by the time we get home.

Glad to see I'm not alone. At 72 I find one away-from-home errand/event/appointment a day more than enough. And I carefully schedule that way. If my calendar looks "wide open" to someone else, too bad. And sometimes I need do-nothing days to recover from a particularly big day. It's certainly not the way I used to do it, but I wasn't 72 then either.

I agree with Jean. I, too, have been thinking "it's just me". I have a huge to-do list that in days of yore I could buzz through and have left-over energy when finished.

These days, my priority is a safe exercise routine with in-home DVDs or, when I can manage it, an exercise bike or treadmill. I have two broken hips to my credit.......enuf said !!

Emails, eating nutritionally (as best possible), brushing & flossing fill out the rest of my day when I am not sitting on the sofa which feels soooo good. Meanwhile, my to-do list lives under a stack of papers somewhere. It will take effort to search for it.

This may sound strange, but as the Lord rested on the seventh day (the Sabbath.), I am taking my lifetime's Sabbath rest. This is certainly the the last "day" of my.life,,

This article and the ensuing comments make me chuckle.'
I so agree with all of you.
Now in my mid-eighties, my try to keep my "outing" list at no more than 3 days per week. - If possible, those days are spread out so that I have a "me" day in between each "booked" day( when I just putter).
On the other hand, the slower pace gives me a wonderful chance to " smell the roses" . Life is good !

Mary Jamison! I've thought the same thing. How do these old people run for political office? You know the amount of energy it must take to do all that campaigning.

Love this column and all the comments! Find it interesting that another blog I follow, No Sidebar, about simplifying life - and written for all ages, is all about reducing our activities, using our energy for what's most important, leaving space in our lives etc. etc.

I, too, have experienced a slowdown and remember the busy days in which I day dreamed about living this slowly. I yearned for living as I am now. At the same time the "little voice" says do more, meet more people, keep busy. And, more and more I tell the little voice to just shut up! LOL.

I've also been reading about these later years in life and agree with the writers who teach us to use the time to go inward, heal old wounds, study the spiritual lessons and processes that prepare us for death. I agree that If we don't take this time and use it well we will know it in our last moments and that means - I think - to not get caught up in the mundane, or if we are then use it as an opportunity for mindfulness. Jeeze - even now, so much to learn!

Yes, I've slowed down some, and I don't like it a bit! I've always been a high-energy person, and I'm not happy about losing that part of myself along with other "necessary losses" that come with age. Today we're waiting for test results on one of our 13+ Y/O cats; the "Cat ICU" vet thinks she probably has pancreatic cancer. If she does, we've already decided that we won't put her through invasive procedures or "treatments" that make her feel sicker, and probably won't be effective anyway, so I'm trying to prepare for yet another loss. There are days when it seems like just about the only "positive" thing to be said about being old is that I'm not dead--yet!

Before I retired I could be showered, dressed. bed made, face made up, fed, and in the car with coffee in a to-go cup in 25 minutes. Now it takes me two hours to get coffeed (first thing), showered, usually fed, medicated, dressed, with no makeup to make it to any appointment for anything, The bed doesn't get made. I am very lucky nothing in this town is more than 10 minutes away.

Tuesdays I home school a grandkid beginning at 7:30 and and make a dish to take to the family's Tuesday night potluck. Then I pick up a second one and I try to get them to a park to run while I amble. That's a BIG day for me mentally and physically. I need all day Wednesday to recover. Some days when their Mom comes for them at 5PM, I give her the food along with the kids and stay home. I'm okay with that. I've slowed down and it is not by choice. If I had more energy I'd be doing a lot more things, still not all on the same day though ;-)

Sometimes I think you read my mind, Ronni! I too love this post for making me feel, in my case, not guilty. It really annoys me to have people who are, say , a quarter century younger wonder what I do with my time. The job from which I retired 15 months ago,after 38 years, was exhausting, both physically and psychically. I literally collapsed three weeks after my last day, with a serious arrythmia heart issue and an emergency gall bladder removal-they operated at midnight the day I was diagnosed. I was so used to soldiering on that I did not think of the pain as significant......Anyway, then I basically slept for nine months!! And now I am ready to live a different life. I waited a full year to decide to commit to anything.
This year I have decided on one outside activity-I rejoined the orchestra that I was too exhausted for in my last working years. And the one thing a day rule? It is partly an energy thing, but more that I do not want to live the way I used to! Those working/ child rearing years were then, this is now. Every day that there is nothing scheduled on my calendar feels like Christmas!

I'm with you on this. Slow down, smell the flowers. So how come my dear Bridge is always telling me to do you-know-what, or get off the pot.?

Who would have thought "Take a Shower" would end up as an item to be counted as an activity??

I have slowed down considerably over the past year and a half; especially from Open Heart surgery last November. But it is not by choice. I really miss working at the flower shops and I'd do it again if I were able. One to two things per day is about all I can handle now. Although we were in NYC last week and I walked my fool head off 3 days in a row. I have paid for that, too, and even the 9 hour car-ride home didn't help that much.

Such a pleasure to read all these comments and feel part of a lively community that can laugh at some of the surprises life throws at us - for me it seems not so much that my body can't do it all but that my organising skills have slowed way down and so it takes me much longer to plan and then carry out the variety of things I like or want to do - having recognised that also makes it easier - I make sure to give myself plenty of time to plan and organise. thanks for sharing everyone.

Agree.

One or two activities a day, getting stuff done, fitness classes.

A must visit stop for me is the local library. It's not only a great place to get caught up on news and mags like The NYTimes, my favourite big wing chair has been custom contoured bythe many senior butts that claimed first dibs.

I'm 63 1/2 and it's already starting. I like to be MODERATELY busy and like you, I enjoy working on my computer. So I can stay in my pajamas if I want!

We used to host dinner parties, outdoors in the summer, for 20+ people. Twice a week! I did the planning, cleaning, shopping, cooking and hostessing. It was fun! Now ... if I have invited four friends over for a potluck, I have to start days ahead.

I'm hopeful my knee replacement tomorrow will allow me a little more stamina!

I missed commenting on this on Monday, when it appeared. (Got too busy!) I read it with a great deal of interest, since I know I've slowed down somewhat, even though my days seem to be filled—overflowing to tell the truth. I'm not all that happy about this. I'd like some "downtime" as I age. I know its not how much I have to do, rather the issue is how long it takes me to do things. Longer and longer, it seems.