One part of a good self-care routine comes down to finally getting consistent in the gym, which many people struggle with. Us modern humans tend to treat taking care of our bodies as a side quest. We’ll get to it when we finish work and answer that last email. And that’s a problem, but there’s another side to the story.
A big part of self-care is actually quite a lot less dramatic, even though it can be just as useful. There are plenty of small things you can do to reduce friction in your everyday life. I’m talking building better boundaries with your phone, or even a practical men’s laser hair removal grooming routine that cuts down on annoying maintenance and makes you feel that little bit more put together.
It’s all about making your normal day feel lighter to carry, and there are a few habits that you can implement to make that happen. But first, you need to approach it with the right mindset.
Self-Care Is a System
The truth is that most people don’t burn out because they have the wrong training plan or they skipped applying their hydrating cream one morning. They burn out because their lives are riddled with tiny problems that stack up. There’s decision fatigue, poor sleep, constant notifications, social isolation, and tons of other forms of background stress.
So, when I talk about self-care habits here, I don’t mean adding more tasks to your already packed schedule. What I am talking about is designing your day so fewer of those tasks feel like emergencies. Let’s start with the basics.
1. Protect Your Sleep
As much as I love working out and believe that it offers a truckload of benefits, for me, sleep is still the undisputed champion of self-care habits. The reason for that is simple: every single thing you do gets harder when you’re tired.
Despite this, and despite the fact that we all know how badly sleep deprivation can affect us, more than a quarter of Americans report sleeping less than 7 hours a night.
[Source: CDC]
So, if you want a simple self-care habit that puts you ahead of a huge chunk of the population, just pick a consistent bedtime and wake-up schedule and stick to it.
To make that easier for yourself, lower the number of decisions you have to make each night. Charge your phone away from your bed, and keep a book at your bedside table instead. Dim the lights and put on some blue-light filter glasses. The more boring and consistent your nighttime routine, the better.
2. Take a Two-Minute Reset
A lot of what we feel as stress throughout the day is actually residue that your nervous system carries from one situation to the next. So, a self-care habit that helps more than you’d imagine is implementing micro-transitions throughout the day and giving yourself just a couple of minutes between “chapters.”
When you finish a tense call, stand up, shake out your shoulders, and take a few breaths before moving on to the next task.
While you’re eating, don’t look at your phone or listen to a podcast. Let yourself enjoy the food and give your mind some time to categorize all the little thoughts and decisions you couldn’t get to between meals. Plus, I know from firsthand experience that this helps with weight loss as well, so it’s doubly worth it.
If you work from home, introduce a commute-style activity, like a little walk before and after work, to signal your brain that you’re switching gears. It might sound small, silly even, but I promise you it helps. Which leads me into the next habit:
3. Be Mindful of Your Attention
Attention is a finite resource, and if yours is constantly being tugged in six directions, you inevitably end up feeling scattered. That feeling is exhausting and at least part of the reason why over half of workers in the U.S. and Canada report experiencing a lot of stress, according to Gallup.
[Source: Gallup]
You cannot control where the world’s going, but you can control how often it interrupts you. Try one of these as a daily habit and see where it goes:
- Pick two check-in windows for email/messages instead of grazing all day.
- Turn off non-human notifications (apps that aren’t actual people).
- Take at least ten minutes a day to just sit, not consuming anything.
Give your brain a chance to complete a thought before the next tab opens. You’ll thank yourself for it.
Most Important Rule: Start Small
Self-care habits, like all others, only stick when they feel easy enough to keep up. You also don’t want to introduce too many at the same time. These 3 should be plenty for the time being, so just give them a couple of weeks and see what happens. You’ll be amazed at the difference these simple hacks can make.