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How to Balance Practicing Self Care with a Busy Life
One of the most difficult challenges a lot of people (myself included) face with self-care, is finding the time to fit it in. When you live a busy lifestyle (who doesn’t anymore?), it can seem almost impossible to find extra time to look after yourself.
So, how can you balance practicing self-care with a busy lifestyle? I’ve got some great tips you can follow.
Schedule It In
A good tip you can follow to ensure you can fit self-care into your busy routine is to schedule it. Think about it, you schedule almost everything else in your life, so why not self-care? When you set a time to focus on yourself, you are much more likely to stick to it. No matter how busy you think you are, there will always be time for self-care somewhere in your schedule.
Use whatever system works best for you to schedule it in. Some people use wall calenders, or their phone calendars, others use digital planners, and others still use physical planners or printable planners.
Personally, I use a mix of wall calendars, physical planners, and my phone calendar.
Establish a Morning Routine
If you are struggling to find the best time of day to practice self-care, you might find it easier first thing in the morning. If you’re a busy parent, you might disagree here but think about it. In the morning, you could get up just 30 minutes earlier, or 15 minutes if you want. This can be the perfect opportunity to practice self-care.
Alternatively, if you are a parent you could focus on self-care in the evenings after the kids have gone to bed. It doesn’t take long to practice self-care so you should always be able to squeeze it in somewhere. Even 5-10 minutes at a time can be enough. When my son was little I used to grab time in the mornings and the evenings depending on what was going on
Personally, I’ve done both. Some self-care practices, like taking a relaxing Epsom salt bath, are better suited to the evening. Others, like yoga, can be done at either time. Early morning hours are great for self-reflection and mindfulness. The internet is full of great sources for yoga. One of my favorites is yogadownload.com they have so many great resources on the site!
Look at automating daily tasks
There are all kinds of tools and gadgets that can automate various aspects of our lives. If you are constantly busy, you’ll find automating certain tasks can be a game-changer.
For example, you could switch from going to the grocery store, to ordering groceries online. Instacart is perfect for this! I use the service and it saves SO much time. After you place an order the app tells you how many hours of shopping you saved. If you have items you frequently purchase, these can be added to your favorites list, making it easier to add them to your order next time. You can also set up saved carts for stores you frequently shop at. Doing your grocery shopping online can free up a lot of free time during the week that can be used on self-care.
Start Small
You don’t have to start by completely overhauling your lifestyle. Instead, you can start small with self-care. Begin by taking just 10 minutes out of each day to focus on a self-care activity. Focus on developing one positive self-care habit at a time. Once you have mastered that, you can move on to the next task.
Starting small makes it easier to fit self-care into your busy life. Many people mistakenly think they need to begin with at least 30 minutes a day. The truth is, however much time you can free up for self-care is enough. Once you get started, you’ll find it easier to start focusing more on self-care due to the benefits you experience.
Overall, balancing practicing self-care with a busy lifestyle isn’t easy. However, the tips above can really help. You’ll find a lot of tips online too from busy people just like you. Remember, self-care is essential to your health and wellbeing. So, no matter how busy you are, you should always try and make time for self-care daily.
Need more help? If you want to run a successful business, you need to avoid burnout. Check out my 5 easy self-care tips that ease stress.
