5 Ways to Find Time for Self-Care

This is the second post in a series addressing some of the barriers recently identified by nurses on my TikTok channel. There were some themes that crossed over many of these responses. In a previous post, I listed the top 10 from the responses.

In my last post, I addressed the number one barrier, Guilt, and gave 5 reasons you shouldn’t feel guilty for self-care. The second on the list was time. I wanted to address that one in this post.

Before I get into some ways that you can find time for self-care, let me say one thing that some of you might struggle with.  Self-care does not have to take a lot of time. Or at least, not all at once. But, before we get too far into that, let’s look at our list.

Here are 5 Ways to find time for self-care

1 – Break it up

Self-care doesn’t have to be done all in one big chunk. For many of the things that self-care entails, the same benefit can be gained from dividing 30 minutes worth of activity into two 15 minutes sessions, or three 10 minutes sessions, or even six 5-minute sessions.

If it’s physical activity we are talking about, maybe you do 15 minutes in the morning before work and another 15 minutes in the evening before bed. Maybe it’s 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes on your lunch break, and 10 minutes before bed. The specifics are not that important. Doing it is.

2 – Bundle tasks

I know that this seems contradictory to number 1. But, here me out. Some self-care tasks can be grouped together to save time. For instance, one thing that my wife and I do is food prepping. We cook all our breakfasts and lunches for the week on Sunday afternoon.

This allows us to eat healthier without having to think about it every morning. We can just grab our breakfast, throw lunch in a cooler, and out the door.

Yes, this takes a little work on Sunday, but it saves so much time and aggravation during the week that it is so worth it. For those of you that still have small children, you know how hectic mornings can be. This can be the solution to that.

3 – Get up earlier

Ok, this one may be a little harder for some folks. After years of working 7 am shifts, I naturally get up sometime between 5:00 and 6:00 every morning, whether I like it or not. I realize that everybody is not like me in this way. For many, this will be a struggle.

The truth is that pretty much everyone can get up earlier. It does, however, take some discipline and practice. You may have to do it for a while before it becomes easy, but for most of us, it will become easier. The one caveat is that you must go to bed at a decent time. Staying up late and then trying to get up early will be counterproductive as the lack of sleep will offset whatever good thing you are getting up early to do. Make sure you are still getting 7-8 hours of sleep, but get up early and take care of yourself.

4 – Create rituals

Ok, routines may be a better word. Whatever you want to call it, build some rhythms in your life that help you move towards your self-care goals. For me, one area that I was greatly missing was hydration. I probably wasn’t drinking even half of the water I should have been drinking each day. To help with that

Now, as soon as I get up, I grab a bottle of water. I prefer it at room temperature that early. So, to help with this new routine, my wife now stocks some in the pantry in addition to the ones we keep cold in the fridge. To take this even further, I don’t allow myself to have my first cup of coffee till I’ve finished that bottle.

This routine, ritual, habit, whatever you want to call it helps me get a head start on my water intake. As a side benefit, it actually seems to help me wake up more than my morning coffee ever did. I mean, I’m still gonna have my coffee, but this helps. It also helps in another way… let’s just say it gets things moving…

5 – Set achievable goals

There is much talk these days about SMART goals. This is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. The achievable part is big when it comes to finding time for self-care. If you are doing almost nothing for self-care right now and think that next week you are going to be able to spend 45 minutes every day in some sort of physical activity, 30 minutes tending to your mental health, 30 minutes on spiritual habits, one-hour sending time with family, and then 15 minutes balancing your checkbook every day, then you are going to fail.

These sorts of goals are simply not achievable. Ok, they might be, but they are so far from your current state that the chance of you achieving them and, even more importantly, maintaining them is almost zero.

Right now you are likely doing almost nothing for self-care, at least if you’re like most of us. So, set small goals that you can achieve. Then when that becomes a habit, build on that success.

The truth is that self-care can be very difficult. But, it’s also true that it is worth it and necessary. Download your free self-care guide below to start your own self-care journey today.