My new job came with a copy of the United Church of Christ Desk Calendar and Plan Book. Throughout all of my career, our denomination has published an 18-month desk calendar each summer. My new copy spans July, 2021 through December 2022. Being a church calendar, the largest blocks in each monthly calendar are the Sundays, which feature the lectionary readings for the week, a worship theme suggestion, and special observances of the church. I’m used to having a copy of the calendar on my desk. Some years, I scribble a lot of notes on the calendar. Other years, the calendar is left mostly the way it was printed, with just a few notes written.

For most of my career, I have not used the calendar as an appointment book. It has never worked well for me to have a large document as my appointment book. Because it is too large to put into my pocket, it often is not with me at the moment when I need to make an appointment or plan my schedule. For many years, I used pocket calendars to keep track of meetings and appointments. When digital personal assistants became available, I switched to a Palm Pilot and later to a cell phone that had calendar and scheduling functions. For several years, I have had software and hardware to synchronize my calendars on my phone with my computer and tablet. I use my phone as the primary device to check my schedule. It works well for me. In years past, I requested that the denomination make the desk calendar and plan book available in a digital format, but these days it doesn’t seem necessary. There are third party suppliers that make lectionary programs that can be inserted into digital calendars and the few events and occasions that are specific to the United Church of Christ, such as all church special offerings, can easily be added.

When we retired, I deleted a whole lot of recurring appointments from my digital calendar. I no longer had monthly Church Board Meetings or regular meetings with the Department of Stewardship and Budget and other groups within the church. I deleted my weekly meetings with colleagues. I discovered that I had entire days, and sometimes nearly a week without anything scheduled. The occasional visit to the doctor or dentist might be the only appointment on my calendar for an entire day.

Returning to regular work in the church, however, my calendar is starting to fill up once again. I am responsible for monthly meetings with the Faith Formation Board, weekly staff meetings, regular check-ins with the lead pastor, and other things. I find that I need to return to some of the organizational techniques that I observed during my regular working life. Furthermore, I find that I enjoy having a few more items on my calendar and a few more obligations to meet.

It seems to me that much of life is about maintaining a balance. When I was working, often the balance was experienced as the dynamic between work, family and leisure. There were plenty of times when I felt that I was short of leisure. So much of my time was structured in order to meet work and family obligations that there was less time for me to relax. However, I knew that skipping leisure made me less efficient and less productive in work and often less able to be truly present to my family. Readjusting the balance usually helped. Making sure that I had time to get to the lake with a canoe paid off in more focused time at work and more ability to be truly present with my family.

Finding the right balance will be part of adjusting to this new job. In the first place, I am not working full-time. I do not need to be in the office six days each week. The half-time job will afford plenty of time for family and leisure. On the other hand, I think that the structure of working will also lend a valuable quality to my leisure time. Although I don’t think I ever fully adjusted to retirement, with the work of moving and sorting possessions and the process of learning to live in a new place, I found that I wasn’t very good at using my leisure time when I had it in such abundance. Since I could literally go paddling every day of the week, I found that I actually went paddling less often. Waiting for spontaneity to take over sometimes meant that days went by when I wasn’t doing much at all.

I’m no expert at productivity. I only know the experiences that I have and the observances I have made. Retirement left me just a bit out of balance. With no work that I was doing to produce income for our family, I tended not to plan my days. I just got up and went through the day without much structure. I know that I don’t need the hyper-organization that was required of my busiest working days when we had children at home and more tasks for each day than could be accomplished. I’m happy to have a slower pace. But I am also happy with a bit of obligation for my time. It feels good to think about discovering a new balance with a new job. We’ve settled on a couple of days when we will have regular office hours and, of course, our Sundays will involve being physically present at church after a year of online worship. There are other days when meetings, activities and events will take us to the church as well.

Then there is the reality that we will be moving again within a couple of months. We hope to find a home to buy and to be packing up and moving once again soon. That will keep us busy and there will be a balancing act between work and home life.

Right now it feels good to tuck the desk calendar into my backpack and carry it back and forth between the church and home. I’m checking my phone calendar every day once again. I’m sure I’ll get into the swing of things soon.