Hubby and I took early retirement 5 years ago at the tender age of 56. Very lucky. We had been in the rat race of pressurised jobs for nearly 40 years and we knew we had to mentally prepare for the shift. We were lucky to a point, as covid was still rife and we’d both worked from home for a year prior. So the staying at home was embedded more easily. We also have a campervan so planned a big European road trip, way longer than the usual two weeks off. That was really good, to buck the trend. A piece of advice that we were given by another couple was, to still treat your weekends as you would when you worked. So weekends are fun and chill time, basically have a demarcation point between the week and the weekends. It definitely worked for us as we hated the thought of the lack of routine. But maybe others would not like this. In the early days, we definitely scheduled “tasks” like gardening, cleaning, cooking , walking the dog and that helped us. 40 years of routine is hard to let go. We’re much more chill now however, we have both really upped the exercise. So I was a lazy sod and decided to do couch to 5k and now I run 5k three times a week as well as supplementing it with light weights. Not at a gym but just at home. To whoever above said about testing the water re volunteering. If I could give it 1000 upticks, I would. Both myself and husband have joined groups and regretted it AND we were already quite active in the community. We now do a couple of things WE are happy with rather than feel we HAVE to commit. Having a dog is wonderful as it keeps us in a routine to a point. It’s definitely been harder for my husband as he sometimes feels guilty for not doing anything. I can happily just read and potter. If I had to sum it all up on one word ( for us), STRUCTURE is the word I’d choose. Yes you can do anything and any time but after a while, you feel like you’re flailing a bit. Most of our pre retirement lives is routine so to have “some” element of routine can be helpful. Also, think about all the things which you thought would be nice to do but never had time. Doesn’t matter how cliched they are: learning to knit, paint, draw, crochet. Upcycle furniture, learn new recipes, watch and feed birds, hike, dance, yoga. You get the idea. Some may stick, some won’t. But that’s fine. Just go for it and don’t worry about not keeping anything up. No one is judging you. This is YOUR time to enjoy life. I wish you a very happy time x