Your golden years should be some of the most carefree of your life. After all, you’ve worked hard to earn your ability to live out your retirement the way you want to.

This abundance of free time can quickly become overwhelming, though, leaving you unsure of how to approach it. That’s where wellness routines come in handy.

Adopting positive habits early on in this stage of life can make all the difference for your long-term health and happiness. This guide explores the benefits of this strategy, breaks down how you can set and prioritize goals that meet your wants and needs, and provides examples of what a healthy routine might look like for you.

Tap into your goals

Naturally, transitioning to a new lifestyle is one of the main concerns for those entering retirement. After spending most of your life working, it can be tempting to let your responsibilities fall to the wayside and simply relax. Even with more time at your disposal, you may find yourself pushing certain endeavors to the back burner, knowing you’ll have plenty of time to get to them later.

However, this outlook may actually hinder you from having a fulfilling retirement. To prevent habits of idleness from taking root and keep your motivation high, work to establish solid routines, which offer numerous proven physical and psychological health benefits. Besides helping reduce stress and anxiety and giving you moments of achievement, they can enable you to stay on top of key areas of your health, even while you focus on enjoying your free time.

Though this stage of life may not provide a natural structure like what you had during your career, it can still be relatively easy to build routines into your day-to-day life. Start by identifying your priorities, then set daily, weekly, and monthly goals to help you meet them. Once you have your vision set, you can determine what habitual actions may put you on the path to success, setting you up for a positive and healthy retirement.

Areas of focus

Not all retirees will approach their golden years the same way, nor will their priorities or goals necessarily look alike. Even still, there are three areas where creating routines may be especially helpful for everyone: health, relationships, and finances.

Health
If you asked someone in their eighties or nineties what they wished they would have prioritized sooner, they’d likely say their health. As you age, taking care of your well-being may not be as straightforward as it once was, but it’s a tremendously important part of ensuring that your retirement years are as free of complications as possible.

A good overall wellness routine should be concentrated on regular exercise and proper nutrition. The USDA recommends that those aged sixty and over eat a diet of foods rich in protein and vitamin B12 (which your body doesn’t absorb as well as you age) to help maintain adequate muscle mass. Good examples of protein-rich foods include beans, peas, and lean meat and fish like chicken and salmon. Depending on the amount of calories you consume each day, you should aim to incorporate between five to seven ounces of protein at each meal.

For exercise, don’t underestimate the power of walking. Getting your daily steps can be good for both your physical and mental health, so adopt a routine of taking a walk outside, or inside on a treadmill if the weather is poor, at least once per day. If you’re already somewhat active, incorporate more of the types of movement you enjoy. You could even mix it up, such as by playing pickleball on Mondays and Wednesdays and going golfing on Thursdays and Saturdays. Such activities can support cardiovascular health, improve bone strength, and engage your mind. And when you do them with others, you can prevent feelings of loneliness—a key factor in depression—and feel more connected to your community.

Relationships
Speaking of socializing, maintaining a regular social schedule should be an essential component of your life in retirement as well. Whether you choose to age in place or relocate to be closer to family, make a deliberate effort to prioritize your meaningful relationships. For the former, this may mean planning and booking trips in advance to hold yourself accountable to regular visits. But even if your loved ones are just around the corner, you should still aim to schedule weekly or monthly get-togethers to ensure that you make time with them. These relationships can have a positive effect on your mental well-being, helping you feel a sense of belonging and keeping your mind engaged.

Retirement is also a wonderful time to expand your horizons and meet new people. For instance, consider moving to an active adult community, where you’ll find numerous opportunities to connect with others through group activities and mutually shared interests. Another option is to volunteer in your area, which allows you to socialize while giving back and experiencing a sense of purpose. Churches, schools, and animal shelters are almost always looking for volunteers, or you could search for other local opportunities online at sites like volunteermatch.org.

Finances
Having to sustain an undetermined number of years on a fixed income can be daunting. That’s why good budgeting and a financial wellness strategy are crucial. Managing your finances in this stage of life often requires a keen attention to detail rather than a set-it-and-forget-it approach. In other words, the only true way to know if your income is enough to maintain your lifestyle is to track it; if after a few months you find that’s not the case, you can then identify ways to adjust course as needed.

Start a weekly routine to run through your financials, looking at everything you spent over the previous seven days, what you saved or accrued in investments, and what you plan to spend in the coming week. You could also create separate budgets for specific areas of your life, such as one for health and fitness (e.g., gym memberships, prescriptions) and one for travel. By allocating your funds and revisiting your finances regularly, you can better stay on top of your spending to make sure that you’re living within your means.

Retirement can be one of the most fulfilling and enjoyable periods of your life if you take the steps to make it so. Adapting to all the changes it brings may take some time, but when you establish routines you can stick to early on in this journey, you’ll be able to find your groove before you know it.