Self-Care: 6 Secrets of an Amazingly Efficient Routine

Are you feeling burned out or beyond stressed? Self-care will help to relieve tension. This practice refuels you: both emotionally and physically. It is vital for well-being. Yet, on a to do list that is overfilled, it often takes low priority or gets overlooked. That does not need to be the case. Today we’ll be looking at 6 secrets to creating your efficient self-care routine.

Secret #1: Make It Routine

Today’s society and our lives are crazy busy. We juggle many roles. We attempt to serve others (family, friends, clients, etc) from an empty cup. We put taking care of ourselves low on the priority list. Since we are not fueled, we can not fuel others either.

Even once we decide that self-care is vital, we don’t make time for it on an ongoing basis.

This is similar to brushing our teeth or relating to our families. We can do it every so often but we won’t reap benefits because of lack of engagement.

Self-care needs to be something that we do on a regular basis: every day is preferable.

The self-care ritual can take as little as 5-10 minutes and it’s a 100% worthwhile investment.

Key point: Reserve time DAILY for self-care.

Secret #2: Effective self-care looks different for each person

While learning about what aspects of self-care are efficient for others can give us ideas, we can’t depend on their strategies to work for us.

Each person is different, from our personalities to our likes and dislikes.

While crafting your self-care routine, try different things. Key into each thing and determine how it makes you feel. If the activity makes you happier and feeling more full (emotionally or mentally) take note of that activity and why it worked for you.

The next step is to find 5 of these activities and focus on them while creating your own routine. These can then serve as one a day or be combined.

Secret #3: Set a self-care goal:

What do you find enjoyable and filling? Can you make a goal out of this activity?

If reading is your thing, aim for a book a week. If it’s journaling, try morning pages. If it’s drawing, buy a sketchbook and fill it by the end of the month.

Setting a self-care goal will help with motivation and making time for your activity and routine. Write down one or two and start working on it.

Secret #4: Build in Habits that Make Meeting Your Goal Easier

There are two ways that this can be accomplished:

Set up structures

Set habits

Setting up a structure: if first thing in the morning is the time you have available for self-care, place the materials in one convenient place, where you will see them every morning. Choose your outfit and get things together the night before so time is freed up.

Setting up a habit: creating a daily routine and sandwiching it between two things you will do every day (for example, after your workout video but before your shower). Another option is arriving to work 20 minutes early so you have time to journal.

Apply this secret with secret #2: what works best for you? What will allow you more time to practice those activities?

Secret #5: Try something different

We grow by learning and expanding our comfort zones.

Fill in the blank…. I’ve always wanted to try __________________.

Put this activity on your schedule right now. Make it a point to try it this month. You might just like it enough to make it part of your routine. Remember to try more than one new thing.

Secret #6: Change It Up

Variety is the spice of life.

Here’s a hard truth: doing the same thing day after day gets stale.

That’s where having an arsenal of five or more activities is key.

Some ways to change your routine up:

• Change location: for example, go outside and work on it if you usually prefer being inside.
• Do something extroverted if you’re an introvert or vice versa (stretch yourself a little but do not do something you know you will be uncomfortable doing)
• Switch the tools you use: even if it’s a tiny detail. For example, if you’re a writer, use your favorite pens or an app on your phone. Even using sharpie pens (depending on the paper you use) might be a good change up.
• Switch the time you do it
• Create something in a different genre or medium. For example, drawing instead of painting.

Conclusion: Combine these Secrets for the Ultimately Efficient Self-Care Routine

Self-care does work: it makes you feel more aware, intentional, energized and more alive. However, the catch is that you need to make it work for you. You now have six secret strategies to work through to find your own routine.

Self-care can be practiced in as small a time frame as you need (pick one activity and use five minutes for it) or as much time as you need (think of a power hour of all your favorites combined or maybe just doing one for a longer period of time). Knowing this, there is no reason to keep putting yourself on the backburner. How will you practice self-care today?