We have found that many executives tend to avoid calling themselves “retired”. It conjures up images of being “done”, no longer contributing. 

To our parents generation retirement was a status with prestige. It meant having earned a pension, and having a few golden years to enjoy the fruits of many years of hard work. 

Not many have pensions these days. Even fewer eagerly look forward to golf five days a week.  Probably the top attraction is more time with grandkids, followed by travel. And who knows how many golden years we have to enjoy. Likely more than the 5 - 10 our parents anticipated. 

So by many observations one of four things happens when “retirement age” is reached:

• Another full-time or consuming jobs are found. Less about the money, mostly about still contributing, being relevant and staying busy. Yet it puts off “the golden years”. Travel, more time with family and pursuit of new or favorite interests are deferred. All too frequently until one spouse is no longer physically able to enjoy travel and other activities.
• “Lost puppy”. The person just wanders, looking for something meaningful to do while feeling really disoriented. 
• Interests have been developed in prior years, and are now pursued, providing a great deal of satisfaction while also starting the benefits of the “golden years”. Still, the tendency is to continue allocating too much time and energy to continuing to work.
• Finding ways to give back seem to become more important.

What is the 85/85/85 framework?

85 + 85 + 85 roughly add up to the number of weekdays in a calendar year. The idea is to allocate your time into thirds. They do not have to be equal thirds -- yet each should be a meaningful % of your time.



• 85 days of work — with or without compensation, doing something stimulating and rewarding
• 85 days of intellectual stimulation — attending conferences, reading, Ted Talks, being on non-profit boards, etc.
• 85 days of recreation, travel and family

Virtually everyone likes this framework — yet containing work to 85 days has consistently proven to be a challenge. This framework makes it easier to say that if one role goes up another must go down, or be eliminated. It is also conducive to staging over time. Beginning with 2 - 3 work roles, then dropping one as the other 85’s become more populated because interests have grown. 

As one example, one of my intellectual stimulation 85’s is joining an angel investing group. It exposes me to a lot of new concepts, gives me a chance to participate in due diligence teams and provides a new and diverse network of leaders to enjoy.