Practical tips for returning to full-time as a knackered 55 yr old

[cassierocks]

Help me survive going back to full time work after 20 years as a knackered 55 yr old !!! I'm returning to full time work with a 2 hr round commute so am after some practical tips and advice please. I'm already thinking clothes planned the night before and sandwiches made on a Sunday and popped in the freezer. Any other suggeations to help ??

i went back to work FT age 51 with a 2 hour round commute and 1 WFH day and I was absolutely exhausted! My weekends were spent recovering! I still have 1 primary age full on DS and a teen and a DH who pulls his weight and a fortnightly cleaner! I was working PT before ( 3 days). Anyway like your plan to compress hours once you are more established that is sort of what I ended up doing. I went down to 32 hours a week with 1x 9.5 hr day 3x7.5 and 1 day off. Seriously I have my life back again and the best thing I did. I might add a couple more hours to make another longer day when my youngest is in secondary school. Other than that I can only suggest being very organised and planning, batch cooking, and not doing too much at the weekends. Allow yourself to rest.

Easy healthy food bought/prepped a week in advance so you don't have to think about it or rely on fast food and takeaways. E.g. Fresh pasta with fresh sauce and salad; good quality ready meals from Cook or Waitrose. If you are not veggie, batch cook some chicken legs - one covered in spices, another in herbs, another in garlic, sesame and soy etc or poach some pieces of salmon in advance, so your protein is ready and all you have to do is steam some veg while it reheats.

At night, do 5-minute Flylady 'room rescues' - just set a timer for 5 mins and as fast as you can make a room look better; dirty dishes in the dishwasher, coats and bags hung up, junk mail and rubbish tossed, crumby surfaces wiped, cushions plumped etc. it is unbelievable how much better a room looks after just five mins. No need to be perfect. Stop when the timer goes.

Same in bathroom. While bath is running, do a quick wipe of taps and mirror, quick scrub of the loo. Or wipe down the shower screen, toss empty bottles, refresh supplies of loo roll, towels etc. Do it every day for 2-5 mins, it never looks awful.

Spend an hour on Saturday morning getting the house in order: change bedding, wash towels, teatowels, bathmat, empty bins, vacuum and dust throughout. Then half an hour doing a one-off job like washing inside windows, clearing out a cupboard, potting on seedlings, weeding patio etc. Just one each time. Then you have a relatively clean and tidy home to enjoy while you relax for most of the weekend.

I'm about your age with 2 dc, similar set up. I've worked full time for years. I have an hour each way. I'm not knackered in any sense - that's not a normal way to feel day in day out. You should wake up rested in the morning and easily have a full day. It's normal to feel tired at night. A pp has said, but I would be getting full bloods done to work out why you feel so tired.

I find it easiest to have a predictable mid week routine, so with work on top too I can manage my energy - so I do fitness class 2 evenings, hobby one, self fitness one and have one evening free. It helps me pace myself and makes my week easy to manage.

Don't set yourself off into the mindset that this is going to make you tired or be unachievable- that feels like a self fulling prophecy.

Make the most of the commute time is my top tip.
I alternate between driving and train, but I always have on hand a really good series to watch ( netflix 45 min episodes) for the train and/or podcasts for the car.
Makes it much less of a chore. Always have cheap earbuds stashed at home/in bag/at work and invest in a good lightweight power bank.

What are your hours like? Is it a 9-5 job with an hour commute or are your hours likely to be longer than that?
I think the routine of it will be a bit of a shock at first but you will only be out from 8-6 so, once you’ve settled in to it and got into a bit of a routine, you’ll be fine.
How often do you socialise in the evenings or what classes and things do you go to? I think that that might dictate what you on your other evenings. For example, if you’re at a gym glass on a Tuesday and out in a Thursday, that dictates that Wednesday is going to be your re-set evening.
I’d try and do things like the washing or changing the bed during the week as otherwise, when it looms at the weekend, ALL the washing, plus ALL of the housework plus doing the supermarket shop can sound quite overwhelming when, individually, none of them take that long.
Most of my friends find this weird but I always go to the gym on a Friday and then to the supermarket (yes, still in my gym gear) and then come home,
change the bed, and then have a lovely long bath. That means that, when I get up on a Saturday, I am ready to enjoy the weekend.

This - always have an audiobook on the go - makes me want to drive the car!

Another one to say get a health check, full time work shouldn’t be knackering (unless you’re in a high stress/high hours industry, but then you can farm the daily grunt work out to a cleaner and others). I was full time in a fairly demanding job and single parent in my 40s and 50s, just stepping down to p/t now as I turn 60. Main things are, while FT, are to make sure you only work your contacted hours and leave it behind the minute you walk out of the office. If it’s just the adjustment from PT to FT use the extra cash to employ a cleaner, or lower your housework standards a bit. I did the latter.

I have a rice cooker works the same as a slow cooker. Brown rice, tofu different diced veggies a bit of soy sauce and ginger. Turn it on in the morning and it's keeping warm when I walk through the door.

I'm the same op. I reckon I have been fatigued most of my life since having glandular fever in my mid twenties. I work full time but wfh and it's just about manageable.

I knew a GP socially who told me she buys five complete outfits twice a year.

Christ on a bike!!! people have money to burn - why so much?? That is so ludicrously wasteful it has blown my tiny mind. 10 new complete outfits every year?? Nutso

Don't forget to plan time to exercise. It has worked wonders for my energy levels and fatigue even though it's often the last thing I feel like doing at the end of a long day. Do what you can, it doesn't have to be an hour at the gym - 20 min YouTube workout, 30 min walk, parkrun walk or jog on Saturday morning.

Use the commute as ‘you’ time. Don’t think about work or life admin. Listen to a pop cast or just have silence or whatever you like.

Thank you all again, some interesting points to take on in particular using commuting time wisely and protecting exercise and downtime. There is an on site cafe so I may "flip" my main meal to lunch time and then have a low energy / picky / deli dinner, oh and better breakfast choices to help sustain energy. I particulary loved the poster who goes to the supermarket on the way home from the gym on a Friday so she doesn'tchave to go on the weekend !

I have a slightly shorter commute. I get up early and go to a gym near work before work. I have a coffee & a small pre work out snack and am up and out in 20 mins - everything ready the night before. Gym and / or class or swim then shower & off to work. Eat my overnight protein oats for breakfast at work.

I also vary what I listen to in the car. Radio for news, Spotify for music or podcasts. I plan my day on way to work & decompress on the way home.