The fact that senior citizens now have the opportunity to retire from the traditional workplace and yet still build an income online is wonderful. But there’s a glaring problem for those who take this path.
You might be hoping to enjoy retirement and slow things down to some degree. But when you start building a business online, it seems to require a lot more of your time – sometimes even more than you’d dedicated to your offline career.
Whether you’re just in the consideration stage or you’ve already become caught in a situation where the lines of work and retirement are now blurred, you can set yourself on the right path to enjoy both.
There’s a strategy you can adopt that allows you to engage in golden hour marketing, reserving the rest of your day for relaxing activities that cater to the needs of seniors, whether that’s spending time with grandkids, fishing at the lake or playing a round of golf.
You don’t have to sacrifice your retirement years. You’ve earned them. Now, you need to map out a work plan that prioritizes your time in the best way possible. You’re basically redefining what retirement means, allowing you to work hard and play hard in equal amounts.
Every Senior Has Their Own Prime Productivity Hours
You shouldn’t have to retire to a life that’s boring and keeps you isolated. You deserve to be able to embrace new challenges and enjoy the concept of building something that’s yours as opposed to the years you spent working in someone else’s business.
There are perks associated with this post-retirement second career path. You need to start by identifying your most energetic and productive time of the day (your golden hours) so you can reserve those for business activities.
Then, when you’re ready to relax and wind down, you can dedicate the remaining hours to things you enjoy that don’t require the same amount of focus and mental fortitude. That will be your leisure time, which is just as important.
For many seniors, this is a new concept. You may have spent your entire career working on a schedule set up by your boss, typically 8 AM to 5 PM with a one hour lunch break at noon.
That’s not always what is best for your natural energy rhythms. You might be the kind of person who wakes up at 4 AM and feels energetic until around 9 AM, or the polar opposite – a night owl who sleeps in and feels more productive in the evening.
This might be based on the activities you like to enjoy during retirement. For example, you might be part of a book club, volunteer group or have family activities you want to do after 3 PM.
You can set aside your morning hours for work, allowing yourself to tap into that energy early on before you face less challenging tasks on your to do list. If you’re trying to force yourself to adhere to a strict 8-5 schedule, you might be sabotaging your efforts.
You could end up frustrated and less productive because you’re working against the natural energy levels your mind and body prepare for you like clockwork. Let’s look at how to devise a systematic approach to this lifestyle…
Creating Your Golden Hour Workflow
Now that you know the benefits of working in a way that is naturally aligned with your energy levels, you can begin setting up a system that is tailored to your specific needs. Every individual will be different, so don’t worry about trying to conform to anyone else’s idea of the perfect schedule or strategy.
The first thing you want to do is conduct a time audit for approximately one week where you are tracking your energy levels and your attentiveness. You don’t necessarily have to work during this time, but you want to make note of times where you feel your energy start to dwindle.
Jot these down so that you can begin developing a a workflow that has you beginning your tasks in a prioritized manner at the start of your heightened energy and the ending at a time when you begin to move into a relaxed phase.
Every senior who is using this particular golden hour marketing technique may have a different number of minutes or hours available to be productive. Some may have an energy window of seven hours per day, while others only have two.
You can build a business online that is successful regardless of whether you are dedicating a full work week to it or simply managing a few part time hours. You want to communicate with your loved ones about what you are doing with your golden hour marketing strategy so that they understand what boundaries should be in place for interruptions and plans.
You may need to adopt some specific techniques to block out distractions in your life. If you are retired, chances are you have a spouse who is also retired, and that can lead to distractions of noise in the home.
You may want to set up a workspace that is dedicated to your business, even if it’s just a desk in a corner of the room that you can sit at to be focused and productive during your golden hour window.
Many senior marketers are adept at getting their work done without typical distractions that younger generations face with a high number of social media apps. But if you struggle with this, you can set up a Pomodoro time management technique where you have a dedicated block of 25 minutes to focus on work followed by a 5 minute break.
You want to always start with the tasks that are high on the priority list. That means things that will actively earn money for you. You can follow that with more mundane tasks such as administrative work or things associated with the learning process.
As you begin to build your business, you want to be looking for ways to save time in your day, which could include things like batch work. This is when you do tasks in groups or clusters rather than switching your focus over and over again throughout your work day.
Treat Retirement Tasks Like You Do Your Business
You have to remember that although you are building a business, you are still technically retired from the traditional workplace. You need to spend your remaining years enjoying life and not simply working 24/7.
This is hard for many seniors to do because they get excited about the prospect of creating their business, and you come from a generation where you are taught to give it your all.
If you are the kind of person to track your schedule on a calendar, whether it’s a digital or physical calendar, make sure you have both business and leisure tasks marked down for your commitments.
As a senior, you probably have certain priorities for your health and wellness, too. You need to make those activities a part of your day. They may not necessarily be relaxing and enjoyable, but they are important and should be worked into your schedule.
Make sure you are flexible with your schedule, especially in the beginning. You may have to figure out how to integrate your non work activities into your day, especially if something overlaps with your golden hour window.
For example, you might be able to get your high priority tasks finished early in the day when your energy levels are at their highest and then break for a leisurely activity before returning to work later in the day for the lesser important items on your to do list.
Take Advantage of Things That Whittle Down Your To Do List
You want to do everything in your power to save time and energy so that you have more free time available to enjoy life or use that extra time for other profit pulling strategies you can put in that empty time block.
For example, you can find many automation tools to help you so that you don’t have to have a hands on approach at all times. You can schedule blog posts to go live, emails to be sent out on your behalf, and even social media posts to be published across different platforms.
You can also implement certain strategies that assist you with this goal. For example, not everyone types fast. You might find it more effective to use a dictation tool, such as the one that is built into Microsoft Word.
This can often speed up your content creation by three to five times, even if you are already a fast typist. It’s also a way for you to enjoy more leisurely activities because you simply need a voice to text app to capture ideas and allow you to create things on the go.
That way, if you are laying out at your pool relaxing, and you think of something that would make a good piece of content for your audience, you can convey your thoughts on the app without having to stop what you’re doing and go to your desk to do more work.
There will also be times when a task is more work than it’s worth. It may be something that you need to do for your business, but you simply don’t have the knowledge, skill, or desire to do it yourself.
If this is the case, you want to think about the time you will save and the effectiveness of having a professional do something on your behalf. If it’s worth it in terms of the cost you’ll be paying, then outsourcing could be the better way to go.
You can also have a virtual assistant (VA) working on your behalf to manage your freelance team, such as ghostwriters and graphic designers. The VA can also do some of the drudge work you want to avoid, such as handling customer service emails or uploading content online.
Maintain Work-Life Balance in Retirement
By now, you should know when you will be most productive and have a plan for taking advantage of those hours. As an entrepreneur in general, senior or not, you may find it difficult to stop working when you should.
This is especially true if you are retired and have nothing else going on the rest of your day. You might be tempted to stay glued to your business because you are excited about the potential it holds and you want to bring your vision to fruition.
But it’s important that you unplug from work at the end of the day. This is a preventative measure that you need to abide by so that you can sustain your momentum to carry through with your business tasks each day.
By failing to retire from work at the end of every day, you will end up blurring the lines to the point where you are burnt out on work and feeling overwhelmed. It may not happen on day one, but you will reach a point where you have simply committed to too much.
Sometimes, it’s helpful to have a digital shutdown at the end of each work day. Turn off your computer, leave the room, and go do something leisurely to set a clear boundary between your work and retirement hours.
Keep in mind that you sitting at a computer for several hours straight can strain your eyes and boy. Establish a physical routine like stretching and eye relaxation exercises to signal to your body and mind that it’s time to relax.
If you are working long hours in a golden window of opportunity, you want to make sure that you are taking regular breaks, even if it’s only for five to 10 minutes. This will support you in restoring your focus and stamina.
If you notice that your post retirement career is causing stress, make sure you address that by engaging in some meditation or mindfulness that resets your mood and allows you to enjoy the rest of your day.
One thing you may want to consider is being involved in a business niche topic that incorporates your hobbies and interests. For example, if you love playing golf, which is both a mentally and physically relaxing sport that’s good for seniors, you can tap into the golf niche and lead people who are just like you.
You could start a blog, build a list, promote digital and tangible products to them, and even create content for social media that you earn money off of, like a YouTube channel or TikTok account
Overcoming Challenges with Golden Hour Marketing
Using a golden hour marketing strategy is not without issues. Every marketer eventually runs into some sort of obstacle they have to overcome. You may have an unexpected event in your family.
There may be days when you are suffering from low energy all day, regardless of whether or not you are physically ill. You might suffer from a health related limitation that emerges in your retirement years.
Give yourself some grace and allow yourself to recover without running yourself into the ground with more work. You need to be able to enjoy the flexibility that is set up for you in this industry.
You may also need to adapt to the challenge of traveling and balancing a nomad lifestyle with a new career. You can easily apply the golden hour marketing method to a lifestyle where you are traveling in an RV or working remotely from an island as long as you have a connection to the Internet at some point.
There are many people your age who set up mobile offices and those who work as expats living in another country enjoying a low cost of living while they build a thriving and profitable business online.
Even if you are simply taking a short vacation, you want to be careful about allowing yourself to enjoy that time off without being glued to your business and all hours. You are the boss now, so you don’t have to ask permission for vacation hours – but you do need to be firm with yourself about actually taking off and living life without work.
Golden hour marketing is perfect for seniors who want to build a business or who have to out of sheer necessity to supplement their income. You can easily review and adjust your work window so that you are using a plan that supports you in your retirement and in your finances.