After 36 years of working life, I retired in July 2022. I had started at 21, a fresh-faced engineer in IT sales, and worked my way through roles until I built and eventually sold my own company to a publishing house. It was the perfect closing chapter to a professional life I loved, and I was ready to hang up my boots.

When I retired, many had warned me the transition would be tough. I brushed it aside — surely trading 14-hour workdays for freedom and joy couldn’t be difficult!

But I soon discovered that adjustment pains were real. Only, they weren’t mine. They belonged to those around me — my husband, our daughter, our live-in help, even our gardener. For them, my constant presence was… an adjustment of its own. But that’s a story for Part 2.

My first reset in retirement was bold in its simplicity: No Goals Policy (NGP) for 36 weeks.

I would wake up each morning and let the day decide itself. For the first few weeks, it was bliss — I read, I slept, I drifted. But soon enough, the novelty wore off. Restlessness crept in, and oddly, my happiness began to dip.

So it was time for a second reset to increase my happiness quotient. I came up with a new policy: One Task A Day (OTAD).

Each morning, I picked one small focus point to give the day some shape. It could be meeting a friend, tending the garden, organising a drawer — or even a “null entry,” meaning no task at all!

OTAD became my anchor, and it continues even now, sprinkling a little purpose and quiet joy into my “all play, no work” routine.