Free Do Less by Rachel Jonat Page B

Work Smarter section to leave your work at work instead of taking it home at night. Continue to build a case for flexible work arrangements, and when it’s time for your next performance review, ask again for a trial period to work less or work from home.
    If work flexibility is completely unavailable, consider looking for a new job. More and more information shows that flexible work arrangements benefit employers as much as they benefit employees. Unless you’re on the cusp of retirement, there is no reason not to look for work arrangements that fit your new simplified lifestyle. Keep your eyes and ears open for friends and acquaintances who have flexible work. Good jobs are often found person-to-person rather than in traditional advertisements or listings.
Rethink Retirement
    Retirement might not be the panacea or enticing finish line people envisioned years ago. Previous generations of retirees benefited from good pensions, decades of saving when credit was scarce and consumerism far less rampant, and jobs that they left at the office each night rather than carried around with them in their pockets. The people currently living well in retirement had far more work-life balance in their careers than most of us do today.
Live Like You’re Retired
Now
!
    The long hours, stress, and sitting at our desks and in cars for most of the day are actually eroding our ability to enjoy our golden years. We’re not putting the energy into our health and wellness because we’re so busy working. And if we don’t take care of our health now, we’ll face a shocking decline in the quality of our lives as we hurtle into old age. The visions of annual cruises and summers golfing will be replaced by the reality of medical appointments and bills. The active retirement life we dreamed of will evaporate under the weight of our poor health and limited mobility.
    If all that sounds very depressing, don’t despair. It’s never too late to start living better, no matter how old you are. It’s yet another reason to streamline your home and working life with minimalism. To enjoy many tomorrows, you need to take care of yourself today. Do not deceive yourself into thinking you will get into shape or start eating better or reduce your stress when the pace of life is a bit slower. Start your wellness plan—your working less, doing less, and living more plan—
today
if you want to enjoy your golden years.
    Besides, why wait for retirement to start enjoying your life? Embrace minimalism, and you can restart that hobby, reconnect with family, or finally learn another language now, not in retirement. Live a vibrant life every day of your life. Let go of the idea that retirement will be a line in the sand or that it’s when you’ll finally do the things you’ve been putting off for years because you’re too busy. You can have a wonderful work-life balance before retirement if you simplify and use the tenets of minimalism to reduce your income needs. Enjoy your life more by having less no matter what stage of your work life you are in: just starting out, mid-career, or retirement.
The Financial Piece
    We all need money to retire, and yet, if we spend forty years working ourselves to the bone, we won’t be able to enjoy those golden years. The answer to this conundrum is to be flexible and, again, align life with your values now. You’ll have to live differently now if you want to live well during retirement. Here are several ideas for restructuring your work and retirement plans:
Work less now but work longer. Push retirement back indefinitely and work less now so that you can enjoy life both now and down the line. Working part-time into your golden age will keep your mind sharp and can actually improve the quality of your retirement life. If you love your career, this can be a great way to slowly transition into not working. Working part-time in retirement could also be a chance to explore a