A taste of the good life

[James]

I took the past two days off work simply to get stuff done and have some down time.  Usually if I'm off work it's for travel or other specific reasons, rarely am I just home.  Yesterday I took my three kids to the dentist, changed out a light fixture, changed out a wax toilet ring, moved my boat lift up on shore, did some cleaning, and just got shit done.  Today I got the kids off to school, changed the lighter in our pellet stove (had help), made some fancy coffee, watched a movie, changed the oil in the car, and went on an eleven mile mountain bike ride through some beautiful forest trails.  Now I'm kicking myself for not taking the whole week off.  I'd love to continue this tomorrow, the next day, and many more after that.  I'd love to just get some down time rather than catching up on the odds and ends of life, which is why I'm leaning more toward dropping down a notch at work, maybe just to .9 at this point, to allow more of these days.  It's just nice to realize I'm not tied to full time work for the next 25 years, by the choices I make I can have a better life.

[Melissa]

I took the past two days off work simply to get stuff done and have some down time.  Usually if I'm off work it's for travel or other specific reasons, rarely am I just home.

Those are my favorite kind of days.  It sounds like you took the right approach in taking two days off, otherwise you may have spent an entire day working at home.  Everyone needs a 'lazy' day now and then to recharge.

We plan on having one of those days at the end of the week.  Taking the bikes out for a nice long ride, spending a leisurely lunch together, then working on some projects together with the kids in the afternoon after school.  It's my vision of retirement

[tooqk4u22]

Those are some of the best days.....part relaxing, part productive, part fun.  I am with you, I want it every day.

[c]

That's pretty much how I used up my vacation days this year. It's nice to do things other than cramming them in over a weekend. I took Friday off to do "stuff" too.

To be honest, I'm not sure it's what I want every day, but I'd like to have it more often.

[DoubleDown]

Those are some of the best days.....part relaxing, part productive, part fun.  I am with you, I want it every day.

+1

I'm thinking about adopting a similar approach. It seems as FI draws nearer, it can lead to "short timer" attitude for me. I'm blessed to get 8 hrs. of vacation time every two weeks, which I almost never use. So maybe it makes sense to start taking one day off every two weeks for days like this. It's kind of like the "SWR" for vacation time -- using up only the part you're accruing every pay period without ever touching the principal :)

[totoro]

I downshifted to half-time seven years ago and have been happy with it.   It is great to be able to stay at home and cook and do renos.

[bdub]

As much as I like the big family vacation, I do find the random-day-off more relaxing.  Since my wife stays at home with the kids, she does a great job of keeping the day-to-day items in check.  Combine that with the small projects we both hammer on the weekends, we really get to enjoy the occasional long weekend or random mid-week "sick" day.

Life is good! (except for the 55-hour work weeks)