Self-care has quickly become something to laugh at within our society. It’s viewed as something limited to bubble baths and luxurious shopping trips. It’s somehow become equated with the idea of self-indulgence. At its root, however, self-care is simply the idea of making sure to care for yourself and meet ALL your needs: physical, social, and emotional. Self-care is making choices that have a positive impact on your life and limiting factors that have a negative impact; it is not selfish and is not frivolous.
In a world of instant gratification and constant availability, it’s almost expected to have steady productivity; being busy has become a badge of honor. Self-care is a way to break the mold and focus on making sure your health and wellness are a priority, not an afterthought. Let’s walk through some self-care benefits and practices you can start considering TODAY.
Benefits Of Taking Care Of Yourself
Take a moment to contemplate your long-term goals. You have some idea of what you want the future to look like, whether your focus is on your career, your family, or your achievements. At times it may feel like the best way to achieve those goals is to work, day and night, until you reach the finish line. Happiness, sleep, health, and relationships can easily be sacrificed on the altar of achievement. Ultimately, if your long-term goals include your friends, family, and a healthy body and mind, you need to include them in the journey along the way.
The thought of devoting time to care for yourself can initially feel like a self-absorbed thing to do. It can also sound counter-productive: how can taking time away from your work help you get more work done? However, making sure to include self-care in your routine has been proven to increase productivity. There are numerous benefits from making the time to take care of yourself.
- You Are Able To Give More To Others
Before a flight takes off, passengers are given a safety speech with the reminder to put on their oxygen mask before helping anyone else. Any sort of caregiver, such as parents, teachers, medical professionals, or social workers are especially prone to constantly tending to others’ needs. Taking time to tend to your own needs supports you in being mentally and emotionally prepared to help others; remember the adage, “you can’t pour from an empty cup.”
Consider it this way: parents, would you rather give 75% of your best self to your kids all the time, or 100% of your best self to your kids most of the time? Taking time to care for yourself makes you happier. You are stronger mentally and emotionally because you’ve given yourself time to rest. It’s much easier to treat all those around you with kindness when you’re enjoying inner peace, instead of battling with inner turmoil.
- You Have A Break From Stress And Anxiety
In 2018, a Gallup world poll shared that 35% of the world’s population was dealing with daily stress, with 55% of Americans reporting daily stress. 83% of Americans have been stressed by something at work. Taking the time to remove yourself from situations that cause stress and anxiety is a form of self-care.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever been personally victimized by a piece of IKEA furniture. Not just me? Perfect. There comes a point sometime during assembly that something goes wrong. One of the forty-two screws is missing or you realize that fourteen steps ago, you put the backboard on upside down. You can seethe and rage and try not to throw the furniture across the room, OR you can take a walk. Watch a 20 minute Netflix show. Calm the stress that’s building up and return when you’re ready to look at it from a different angle.
- Your Cognitive Function Will Improve
“Have you tried turning it off and back on again?”
When technology isn’t working well, we reset it. Give it time to rest for a few moments before asking it to perform again. It’s perfectly reasonable to do the same thing for our brains, the most powerful computers in the universe. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs doesn’t lie: if you feel hungry or tired or upset, your mind will focus on the urgency of those feelings rather than engaging in any sort of creative activities. Practice self-care by meeting your basic needs before anything else and watch your productivity grow.
Self-Care Practices That Will Make You More Productive
Once you know WHY you should implement self-care, you need to focus on the HOW. Here are some easy self-care practices to make sure you’re focusing on your own wellness throughout the day.
- Less Screen Time
Screens have been shown to have several negative impacts on our health. The blue light that’s emitted from devices can interfere with your brain’s cycle and cause trouble getting to sleep. The increase in time spent stationary has led to an increase in health problems including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and vision problems. In addition, those little red notifications create an addiction within our brains, craving new information, and validation from online sources.
Committing to less screen time can help you combat some of these common problems. Better sleep leads to better cognitive function and problem-solving skills. Good health allows your body to do more. Time spent focusing on tasks instead of staring at your smartphone breaks the cycle of needing more stimulation from a screen. Leave your phone in the other room while you work, set screen time limits, or commit to a day a week without screens; find a way to decrease your screen time and hold yourself accountable to the commitment.
- Create A Schedule
There has been a massive increase in the ability to work from home over the past year and a half. While this shift has been beneficial for many, it’s also created blurred lines in the division between work and home: how can you ever be done working when your living room is your office and notifications from work constantly demand more via your phone?
Create a schedule that includes time for you and time for work. Create a balance in order to be productive while still making time for yourself. Commit to your schedule, and don’t apologize for not answering your work email at 9 pm on Saturday night. Taking the time to care for yourself is more productive than already feeling ragged on Monday morning because you spent ten hours working over the weekend.
- Focus On The Present
Every day includes moments that work toward the big picture goals and moments that work toward the small picture goals. Don’t get so lost in working toward the big picture that you forget to also focus on the small picture moments happening all around you. Pause and take stock of your needs throughout the day, then find a way to meet those needs.
- Reframe Productivity
Stop thinking about productivity in terms of visible or tangible results. Productivity can look like this:
-taking a nap
-reading a mindless book
-eating a healthy meal
–nurturing your social connections
Productivity doesn’t have to be a huge step, either. Some days productivity may mean sweeping and mopping your floors, some days productivity may mean getting your dirty dishes to the sink, and some days productivity may mean that you got some sort of food in your stomach.
Rest is productive. Rest is necessary. Rest is not a lazy choice.
- Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro Technique was created by a university student named Francesco Cirillo, who was having trouble staying focused on schoolwork. He decided to chunk his work into smaller time intervals and kept himself on track with his tomato-shaped timer (any guesses what the Italian word pomodoro means? You got it- tomato!).
Some tasks are basically endless and only stop when you choose. Whether it’s studying for an exam or writing an article for a client, you could work infinitely long, far past actually being productive.
To implement the Pomodoro Technique, set a timer for a specific amount of time; 25 minutes is often optimal. Work for 25 minutes before taking a 5-minute break. Rinse and repeat for 2 or 3 more cycles, then take a longer break. Each break allows you to rest your brain and reset your focus, ultimately increasing your overall productivity.
Even if you don’t want to admit it, we’re all just grown-up toddlers who have learned better emotional control. Allow yourself to become too hungry or tired or mentally exhausted, though, and the results are the same: an eventual meltdown. Make sure to meet all of your basic needs and watch as your productivity shoots through the roof. Let us know below which practice you’ll be implementing first!
