Making Time For Self-Care As A Busy Woman
With self-care, common excuses come to mind: Your life is incredibly busy… there’s just so much to do! Between having a demanding job, family life, and
Maybe you feel like it’s not practical to indulge in self-care practices, given all your day-to-day demands. But a crucial fact you may be overlooking is when you take the necessary time to practice self-care not only do you help yourself, but you inevitably help those around you as well.
When you start taking better care of YOU, you begin to have more energy and stamina. Ultimately, you end up having the mental, emotional, and physical bandwidth needed to take care of others and fulfill your responsibilities. You become more mentally and physically equipped to handle anything life throws your way.
I have to admit, my initial experience with incorporating consistent self-care practices into my life closely resembled someone who felt rather uncertain as to how to fit it in. But once I started getting real with myself, and implementing the steps outlined in this article, I realized what I really needed was more structure and organization in my daily schedule.
I needed to get better at transitioning from task to task with work as well as from work into my personal life responsibilities. I was scattered bouncing around from task to task, trying to complete so many things without a structured plan.
This inevitably left me feeling like a ping-pong mentally and overly exhausted. That exhaustion led to feeling overwhelmed, which led to not being sure on how to realistically set aside some self-care recharge time. I needed a visual, structured plan, to prioritize, and get my life together!!
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Simple Ways To Fit Self-Care Into Your Busy Life
As a busy woman, I’m sure you can appreciate ease and simplicity. With so much going on, who has time for anything complex…right? So let’s break this down into the most effective yet simple steps, shall we?
Step 1: Make The Commitment For Self-Care
You need to first mentally decide to prioritize practicing self-care each week, even if it’s just something small. Make a commitment to yourself that you will find the time for some self-care.
Recognize that you need self-care in your life, that you deserve it, and that you are worth it. It really comes down to what’s important to you and realizing that you, my dear are so very important!
Step 2: Create A Self-Care Plan
You should decide what type of self-care activity you can do and determine how much time you can allow for it. Keep two things in mind… First, self-care can be simple and doesn’t have to take a long time. Several tiny things done overtime each week do add up and can have a positive impact on you mentally, emotionally, and physically. Aim for 10-15 minutes a day or 20-30 minutes at least three times a week.
Second, when thinking of self-care, activities to try, think about ways you can become a better multi-tasker. For example, say you are giving yourself a hair mask for a little once-a-week self-care pampering. You can multitask by applying it first and then do some laundry or other house chores. Simply leave it on while doing your chores. Then 20- 30 minutes later, you can get back to it and finish by washing it out.
Step 3: Prioritize
It’s time to prioritize! Look at your life, your daily schedule, routines, all the little things you do each day, big responsibilities, and everything on your normal weekly to-do list.
- As you think of these things, you jot them on a notepad, sorting them based on their level of importance into 2 groups.
- Group 1 would be absolute requirements, big responsibilities, and most important things. These may also be things you typically have to devote the majority of your time to, are always in your weekly routine/list of to-dos, or are things with set times that can’t be modified. Examples could be tasks involving your job/work, family, or caretaker responsibilities (kids and spouse time), home/ finances, health, and faith time (church service). Again, Group 1 is your non-negotiables, the things you’re certain you have to do daily or weekly. You need to also write “Self-Care” under Group 1.
- Anything that isn’t 100% absolutely necessary you want to put in Group 2. These will be your least important tasks for the day or week. To help you figure out what these things may be so that you can sort them into Group 2, these next tips!
Use these next three tips to help with Step 3!!!
Prioritizing Tip 1: Decide Which Tasks You Can Delegate
Think about what tasks you must personally do yourself vs. tasks you can give to someone else to do for you. For example, look at your typical housework tasks, errands, and responsibilities.
- Instead of going grocery shopping consider having your grocery store deliver to you or use Thrive Market. You could also look into ordering from Amazon for household item basics (like toilet tissue, soap, paper towels, trash bags, etc.) and consider buying in bulk.
- See if the hubby, in-laws, or a sitter could watch the kids for a little bit.
- Maybe hubby or the kids could split those house chores with you.
- Instead of worrying about what to cook or buy for dinner each week, look into a meal planning kit service like Blue Apron or Hello Fresh.
Prioritizing Tip 2: Learn To Say “No”
It’s time to make a few needed sacrifices! Do you take on too much?? Are you a people pleaser?
Do you say “yes” to everything people ask of you, even when short on time or drained?
Sometimes you have to be able to just say “no” or “perhaps another time”. It is completely acceptable to say “no” and not overdo or overcommit. It’s ok to put your needs first at times, and you shouldn’t feel guilty about it.
Remember if your cup is empty, you have nothing to pour into others. Sometimes saying “no” means taking the needed time to fill your cup back up, which is completely 100% necessary.
Prioritizing Tip 3: Remove The Non-Essentials
Think about some of the non-essential things you do each day. For example, any unproductive time you spend online with social media. Could you spend less time on social media scrolling through newsfeeds?
I bet you could add up all the minutes here and there that you spend on social media and instead carve out a decent 30 minutes of time a few times a week to devote to some self-care.
Or perhaps think of things that could be put-off and have more flexibility to them, like organizing your kitchen cabinets, etc. These items will go in Group 2 for sure.
Step 4: Time Management With A Weekly Planner
Manage your time…and schedule your self-care in! You need to have a plan and stay organized with a visual reminder. The perfect way to do this is by using a simple weekly calendar/planner with time blocking and task batching.
What Exactly Is Time Blocking?
Well, here is how you need to start thinking…every part of your day and your tasks can fall into designated blocks (pockets of time) starting from when you wake up until you go to bed each night.
Think of your day as being divided up into several 1-3 hour chunks of time. You will block off each chunk of time where you will focus entirely on one specific important task. You will stay focused on that task for the full length of time and not deviate from it.
As an added perk, doing so will help you become more productive at that task and overall throughout your day. For tasks that take less time, you may find you only need to devote 30 minutes or less.
How Do You Batch Tasks?
Along with creating time blocks, you want to batch together all smaller related tasks into one block. For example, I like to batch my major house chores into one larger block once a week (wiping bathroom/kitchen counters, cleaning toilets, wiping down mirrors, mopping, folding or putting away big laundry loads, etc.).
This way, I pull out all my cleaning supplies once and focus solely on cleaning for that big designated chunk of time. For hectic weeks, I may break it up and do several 20-minute blocks spread throughout the week.
Another way I using batching is that I have one block Wednesday evenings used for trash, the mail, and weekly bills. I set aside 20-30 minutes after bringing my trash can in to get my mail, sort it, and pay bills. Rather than checking my mailbox and sorting mail every single day, I do it in that one block of time once a week.
Something else I do that keeps me sane is instead of checking my email all day long with every notification my phone sends; I use one devoted time block each morning, then close it out, and move on with the rest of my day. I don’t touch it again until occasionally once more briefly at the end of my workday.
How To Schedule Your Self-Care Time
The goal is to start looking for the little pockets of time throughout your day and in between your most important task time blocks where you may be able to fit in some self-care. Really think about where you can fit it in. Could you get up earlier?
Perhaps, you could set aside some time after the kids go to bed? Could you shave off 15 minutes here or there? Maybe move those 15 minutes towards time used for your self-care activity?
Just like all the other essential tasks with time blocks in your life (time at work, appointments, caring for kids, etc.), you will block off some self-care time in your calendar!
In fact, you can use the FREE time management self-care weekly planner below!!
Think of your self-care time as date-time with yourself! Let the hubby and/or kids know in advance that you’re taking that time and will be unavailable from _____pm to _____pm.
Take a timer (or your cell phone alarm) and set it. I would suggest setting it for 20-30 minutes minimum. During this time do something different, something you usually don’t give yourself permission or time to do.
Treat it like you would treat a business meeting, pencil it in and do not cancel it! You would plan and prepare for an important business meeting, right? So, you should prep for this special self-care time too!
Pro Tip: Think about whatever tools, products, or materials you need to have on deck. Get your essential self-care tools together and find some special, sacred space.
FREE Time Management Weekly Self-Care Planner
To help you find time for self-care, enjoy this easy to use Time Management Weekly Self-Care Planner!
Not only will this tool assist you in figuring out when and how to fit some “self-care time” into your busy life, but you may find it helps you to become more organized and productive overall each week. Give it a try!
Sign up below for the FREE Time Management Weekly Self-Care Planner!!!
Free Time Management Weekly Self-Care Planner
PLUS 70 Self-Care Ideas to get you started below!!!!
70 Self-Care Ideas For Women
How To Use This Weekly Planner:
- Set aside a little time over the weekend for when you will fill out your weekly planner. Sundays work best for me!
- Using Step 3 from this article, you should have written down and organized your tasks into two groups. RECAP: Group 1 are things that can’t change, your mandatory tasks, most important tasks, and tasks with deadlines. Examples could be anything work-related, important meetings, doctor appointments, caretaker tasks related to your kids or others that can’t be delegated, anything that requires 2+ hours, faith & worship, paying bills, and self-care time. Remember, Group 2 consists of less important tasks. Hopefully, in Step 3, you were able to figure out which of these tasks you could delegate, say “No” to, put off, or remove altogether.
- First, using your Group 1 list, take your planner and fill in all your tasks that have set times and deadlines. This allows you to see which time slots are taken and what blocks of time may be available for other tasks. Examples: Appointment with Dr. Steel on Monday 4 pm., Parent/Teacher meeting for Josh Tuesday at 3 pm., or Church service Sunday at 11 am.
- Second, using Group 1, fill in all tasks that take 2+ hours. Example: Time at Work/Job
- Third, using Group 1 fill in tasks that take 1-2 hours. Examples: Dinner with Hubby and In-Laws, possible self-care time, or you could lump all house chores (cleaning counters, cleaning toilets, mopping the floor, laundry, etc.) into one-time chunk once a week as I do.
- Next, using Group 1, fill in tasks that take 30 min or less. Examples: Self-care time, getting and sorting the mail, paying bills, etc.
- Lastly, if there are any tasks left in Group 2 that you feel you really need to get to, you can now add them in. But don’t overdo it! Again, use the tips for prioritizing in step 3. Try to delegate, put off, or get rid of any tasks if you can.
Pro Tip: Again think of how you can batch similar tasks together. Here are some examples…
- House Chores: laundry, cleaning, mopping, vacuuming, etc.
- Administrative Tasks: getting mail, paying bills, sorting mail, paperwork, tossing unneeded mail and papers, etc.
- Communication Tasks: reading and responding to emails, returning calls, or texts.
- Errands: grocery shopping, getting gas for the car, going to the drug store, etc.
Hope you Beauties, find this helpful! Don’t forget to use the additional freebie of self-care ideas! If you try any of these tips, let us know and share with us.
Do you have some tips of your own for making time for self-care? Feel free to them leave in the comments. Sharing is caring, please share with friends and pin this article for later.
Related Self-Care & Wellness Articles:
- Self-Care: The Benefits of Beauty Therapy
- How To Take Better Care Of Yourself
- Best Women’s Self-Care Tips To Prevent Burnout
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