Add Self Care to Your BUJO, Journal or Calendar

Self-care is often overlooked or placed on the back burner because it’s seen as selfish. 🛁 🤍 However, self-care is essential to our well-being and can help prevent burnout. When we take care of ourselves, we are better able to take care of others.

I always encourage people to make sure you include self-care in your life by adding it to your journal or calendar. This will help you to be more intentional about making time for self-care and ensure that it becomes a priority. I have some tips to help with this.

1. Make a list of self-care activities that make you feel good

No one’s list looks the same. Someone might think making time for a bath every night is amazing, for me it sounds boring… but that is the point, self-care is all about YOU. Write down a list of several self-care activities that make you feel good – that way you have multiple items to choose from based on the time you have allotted to self care that week. It is any item that relaxes or recharges you mentally or physically. These could be things like getting enough sleep, eating healthy foods, exercising, spending time in nature, meditating, practicing yoga, doing breath work, writing in a journal, listening to calming music, spending time with friends and family, or pursuing a hobby. Maybe you want to pop some microwave popcorn and veg out for 30 minutes to "netflix and chill" with yourself.

2. Schedule self-care activities into your journal or calendar

Once you have your list of self-care activities, start scheduling them into your calendar. Be reasonable about the time you need. You don’t want to pack your schedule so tight, because in a pinch, self-care is most times the first thing you cancel. By putting it into your calendar, you are giving it a level of importance that it is worthy of your time.

3. Make self-care a priority

It’s important to make self-care a priority in your life – just as you would any other important appointment or commitment. This means setting aside time each day, week, or month specifically for self-care activities. And if something comes up that prevents you from doing your scheduled self-care activity, reschedule it, don’t just scrap it all together. Treat it with importance

4. Set Goals:

That’s right, set goals! You do it for the other habits and activities you want to complete in your life, why not self-care? This could be something like “I will take a 20-minute break every day to relax” or “I will go for a walk outside 3 times per week.” Having specific goals will help you to measure your progress and stay motivated and you are being intentional in setting the habit, so that it becomes part of your schedule. You can even use a habit tracker here.

5. Take Time for YOU:

Remember that self-care is about taking care of yourself, so make sure you do things that YOU enjoy and make YOU happy. This is your time to relax and recharge. It’s ok to do these tasks with others too. If you have friends or family members who are also interested in self-care, see if they’d like to join you in some of your activities. Just make sure in the end, what you are choosing to allocate that time to, brings you joy.

6. Don’t be too hard on yourself

And finally, if you find that you’re struggling to stick to your self-care routine, don’t be too hard on yourself. Remember that this is a journey and there is part of this that is self-discovery too, and that every little bit of self-care counts. Just get back on track and keep going!

Making self-care a priority in your life is essential to your well-being. You know you are more productive when you are recharged and refreshed. Adding it to your journal or calendar is one way to make sure you stick to your self-care plan and create the habit. By being intentional about making time for self-care, you can improve your physical and mental health, and most importantly, you are saying to yourself, I matter.

September is Self-care awareness month! Check back later this week for some journaling prompts and downloads to help incorporate self care into your journal.