Your hours
The second year, not the first week.
Most men can do anything for a fortnight. The question worth answering is what you would still turn up to when it has stopped being interesting.
Size it honestly
An hour a week that happens for two years is worth more than a grand gesture that happens once, to the people receiving it and to you. It is also harder, because it has to survive a bad week, a cold morning and a stretch where nobody thanks you.
Undercommit. A man who promised one afternoon and gave it for three years is a different proposition from a man who promised three days and stopped.
The questions
None of these have a right answer. They only have an honest one.
- Do you want to use the thing you were good at, or is the appeal precisely that you would not have to?
- Do you want to be seen doing it, or would you rather nobody knew?
- Could you take instruction from somebody half your age who is better at this than you are?
- Or is the truth that you can only do it if you are running it — and is that worth admitting before you start rather than after?
- Do you want to be around people, or around a task?
- Do you want to be needed?
- What have you already been quietly doing for people, without calling it anything?
That last one is usually the answer. Men rarely notice the thing they already do.
Wanting to be needed
It gets treated as a weakness and it is not. A man who knows he wants to be needed picks something where he will be, and turns up. A man who will not admit it picks something noble, resents it by March, and stops.
What will not be asked of you here
You will not be told how many hours to give, where to give them, or to commit to anything. You will not be set a task or a deadline, and nothing here suggests a smaller contribution is a lesser one. No organisation is named on this site, and nobody is vouched for.
If anyone is pressing you for money, a loan, an investment or access to your contacts — however it is framed — that warrants caution and independent advice before you commit to anything.