Planning ahead and in praise of end dates

I started writing this post knowing that our RTW trip will not happen for quite some time.  With more snow on the ground and coming in another wave, I was back to thinking of snowshoeing, not gardening. It’s an apt metaphor both for travel and for home life right now - in the gap.

Over the weekend, I was getting some extra work done, and have a new responsibility that is taking more time than I originally planned.  So, I decided to add it to my calendar as a recurring entry.  I went into Outlook, hit the yearly button, and counted on my fingers and selected the end date for the task. It felt so good.

At this moment, we're enjoying our work. And, the boy is in late high school, so he needs to finish that. I've also thought about all of us taking a gap year together, but we have only saved $5,400 USD so far and the goal for a budget is closer to $100,000 USD for the both of us.  I'm sure we could add him to the mix for not a whole lot more, and maybe we will.

It's just there is a sense of getting certain milestones accomplished before we go.  One milestone for me would be to have a certain number of years at my job that serves as a celebratory jumping off point as well as one that will allow us to put enough money away to make a trip happen without financial stress.

Still, there has been something fantastically concrete about planning on a finite number of springs of a project, and owning that schedule from my timetable. Having an end date, even if only in my own head, puts a sense of urgency and finality around work that would not be there otherwise.  Without, I think that mode would be more of “oh, how long am I going to have to do this?"  By setting my own stop date, I theoretically know the answer. 

We have many deadlines growing up: high school graduation, college, etc.  However, after that, where are the end dates? I think this could be a radical approach to workplace satisfaction, or even to staying in place but giving yourself an end date to go on vacation, and come back and look at doing a different or adjusted role where you are, or starting to look for other opportunities. 

I also know that it is a privilege to have the option to consider this approach. But think about it -when do we set our own big-picture calendar, instead of having it set for us? I have a friend who is a worrier, who often frets about being fired. Although she has nothing to worry about, I think it would be hard to handle putting all the control in another's hands that way.

I was going to do a years later, future publish date of this post, but after chatting with Jeff I am putting it out in the world now. Interestingly, I was recently talking with a colleague at work about a retirement event.  She expressed that she just wanted to ‘slip away without any fuss’ and then shared, with a twinkle in her eye, that she had picked her end date at work.  I think she’s experiencing the same thing that I am – satisfaction knowing that you have a finite time to do the best you can with the time you’ve got.