Ask Slashdot: What To Do With New Free Time?

An anonymous reader writes "After 25 years of doing IT (started as a PC technician and stayed on technical of IT work through out my career) I've been moved to a position of doing only on call work (but paid as if it is a normal 9-5 job). This leaves me with a lot of free time... As someone who's used to working 12+ hours a day + the odd night/weekend on call, I'm scared I'll lose my mind with all the new free time I'll have. Any suggestions (beyond develop hobbies, spend time with family) on how to deal with all the new free time?"

Comments

so many things

[stoolpigeon]

write apps, contribute to open projects, write a book and or books, volunteer with a non-profit. Or read reddit a lot and play starcraft or something. So many possibilities.

Re:so many things

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed, my dad's been retired for 20 years and says he doesn't know how he ever found time to work. I retire next year, people ask "but what will you do?" My answer is "any damned thing I want!"

Some people live to work, I work to live. In eight months I'll be shouting Martin Luther King's phase "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, free at last!"

The first thing I think I'll do is take a hammer to my alarm clock.

Re:so many things

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen this happen to many people. The brother of a co-worker of my dad's retired from work after 40 years. He sat in the house and watched TV (a lot of TV). That's it. Breakfast, TV, Lunch, TV, supper, TV, bed. He suffered a massive heart attack two years later, was in a nursing home two years after that, dead three years after that. A neighbour had driven a truck for about 35 years. No family, couldn't spare the time. He had a banjo (brand new) that he always wanted to learn to play. He had a motorcycle that he always wanted to ride. When he died, his girlfriend called the ambulance and they carried him off. He died in poor health, with a 15 year old motorcycle with 20 miles on it, a 10 year old Fender banjo with all the packing material still on it. He thought he would still have time. Nope! I try and do something really nice for me every day. I work to live, I don't live to work. I have worked (briefly) for employers who thought my very existence was to provide them with labour and profits, and I didn't work for them long. Like one parent said, if I won the lottery tomorrow, I would be building a light sport aircraft in the garage, playing golf every weekend, and I somehow wouldn't mind going on a lot of road trips, doing a lot of travelling, learning to scuba dive, have (a lot more) photo equipment than I have now, and probably doing the amateur farmer thing and donating excess food to the poor.

Electronics

[Alioth]

Learn how to make electronic devices. It's never been easier to get started with this stuff than today. Start out with a breadboard, some transistors/resistors/capacitors/common IC types like the venerable 555, work with AVR or PIC microcontrollers, and perhaps work up to designing digital circuits in CPLD and FPGAs. You can even get four layer PCBs made in a factory for your projects in small runs.

Re:Life

[junq316]

As someone in a similar position as the original poster, I'm facing the same issues he does. I'm about to change jobs and will have a lot more freetime in the future compared to now. Going from a very demanding job working a minimum of 12h a day to a 9to5. And yes, if most of your waking hours are spent working and you sleep with one eye open in case an alarm goes off, you do tend to forget how to live. It won't be an easy transition, so best of luck to timothy on figuring this out. For me, I'm trying to find new hobbies that won't have me sitting at home infront of a screen but to actually go outside and meet & interact with people.

Nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

A few friends of mine have recently switched jobs so they are working less time. Let me share something that has worked well for them: Make no plans for two weeks.

When you first find yourself with free time you may think you need to fill it up with a hobby or visiting people or getting a part-time job or starting a new project. Don't do that right away. Give yourself a few weeks where you daydream or consider options, but make no plans. Your body is in the habit of working and you will feel a drive to keep moving. Don't. Relax, let your mind and body adjust to your new schedule.

Eventually, two or three weeks into the new gig, you will probably find you naturally gravitate toward certain activities. Maybe you end up playing ball in the park or reading about history or you learn a new language or you start hanging out at the pub. Whatever it is, let it happen naturally. Don't go out into the world with a set plan, let yourself wander aimlessly for a few weeks and something will catch your interest.

Ride Your Bicycle, Relax

[InitZero]

When you say 'Any suggestions (beyond develop hobbies, spend time with family) on how to deal with all the new free time?', you're missing the point. Free time is all about hobbies and spending time with the family. It isn't about finding more work.

When I was, more or less, unemployed for ten months, I rode my bicycle. A lot: sometimes more than 200 miles a week. Lost 30 pounds. Felt great. By the time I had to go back to real work, I was in the best shape of my life, was relaxed and had spent wonderful amounts of time with my wife and kid. (Now I'm a fat slob again. But I'm making money. So, I've got that.)

Whatever you do, don't feel guilty about having free time. Don't try to fill your free time with more day-job-type work. You've done day-job-type work for 25 years and are, apparently, valuable enough that you don't have to do that 40 hours a week anymore.

Cheers,
Matt