7 Time-Saving Stress Reducing Self-Care Tips
What if you could consistently take time for yourself without guilt, shame or stress? These are tips, tools and techniques that have taken me literally 10 years to learn and implement. Some never learn these skills. Thankfully, you can change. And as the Self-Care Clubbers taught us, everyone’s lifestyle is unique and it truly takes a personalized approach to self-care. As women, we are not just taking care of ourselves. We have families, elderly parents to care for, children, grandchildren, pets-- all while working full time jobs.
In today’s blog, we share “tried and true” tested tips that help life flow and some tips that have just flopped. Because here’s the truth:
What works for one person or family may not work for you.
Other people telling you what to do typically doesn’t work.
You’re going to get 7 time-saving tips to reduce stress. These aren’t any old time-saving tips. These tips are tested and come from our very own Self-Care Club. You’ll uncover and discover actions you want to take using time-saving tips that fit with your lifestyle. Remember, you can make these tips your own and make them work for you. Whether you’re struggling with your priorities or you have this down, keep reading now. When you start implementing time-saving tips that focus on your self-care, stress can literally start melting away. [/cmsms_text][/cmsms_column][/cmsms_row][cmsms_row data_width="boxed" data_color="default" data_padding_top="0" data_padding_bottom="20"][cmsms_column data_width="1/1"][cmsms_text animation_delay="0"]
7 Time-Saving Stress Reducing Self-Care Tips
The 90/90/1 rule
The 90/90/1 Rule is all about taking the first 90 minutes of each day for 90 days to work and/or focus on self-care and personal development.
You can make this rule work for you by shortening it up to fit what you can do right now. Let’s say you are realistically only able to give yourself 10, 20 or 30 minutes at this point in time. That’s ok - start there. The rule would then change to the 10/10/1 rule. This rule is all about creating a habit.
Where’s one area of your life that you could focus on this?
Tight Bubble of Total Focus or TBTF
This idea came from Robin Sharma, a leadership author who talks about creating a Tight Bubble of Total Focus around you. This is your environment and your space. It looks like turning off any and all distractions, such as the TV, your phone, the radio, clearing clutter as well as people who are pulling you away from your main focus.
What does your TBTF look like for you?
Set Emotional Boundaries
First set boundaries with yourself. This looks like planning your day ahead of time specifically with your self-care in mind. That way, when someone reaches out or asks you to do something, you can let them know with confidence and ease that you’re not available. This saves you the emotional drain and time of thinking about how you would respond because your time is accounted for already.
Meal Planning
If you’ve got a lot of mouths to feed, it can be overwhelming to come up with a different meal every night. Not to mention, it can take hours to prep and cook food. What Denise does is meal prep her veggies and protein ahead of time and then huddles with her family each night to choose the spices, veggies and protein they can all agree on. Whether it’s Asian, Mexican, or Italian inspired, the veggies and proteins are prepped and ready to go.
Food Prepping
Contrary to popular belief, fast food can also be “healthy” food when you take the time to prepare your veggies ahead of time, separate into containers or baggies to take with you while you’re on the go.
Capture the Magic Hour
The time right before you go to sleep can be a magic if you decide to make it that way. Set yourself up for a successful sleep and morning by prioritizing 15-20 minutes for a bedtime ritual. Here’s some ideas of what you can put into your ritual. Wash your face, take an epsom salt bath, drink some herbal tea or decaffeinated tea, set your wake up time on your phone, lay your clothes out, set up your coffee or breakfast, meditate, read or journal before lights out. Try to go to bed at the same time every night.
Schedule Your Week
Once a week, sit down with the family and find out what everyone’s schedule is for the week; next ask everyone to give a suggestion for their favorite food and create a menu. Create a meal list and create a shopping list. Pick a day that you shop and run errands or utilize a grocery service where you have your lists set up and you just pick and choose.
Dig Deeper: You deserve to put your health and self-care first without guilt or shame. Learn how you can take significant small steps here. Now, the Self-Care Club Members and I would love to hear from you.In a comment below, answer these two questions: 1. What’s ONE area of your life where you’d like to own your time? 2. What ONE time-saving, stress reducing tip you will start using?
Grab a piece of paper, reflect, journal and write your thoughts in your notebook or in the comments below. Did you do it? Amazing! Many people avoid reflecting on ways they can improve their self-care/health because they don’t know what will work or because other things haven’t worked in the past. But, as one of our Self-Care Clubbers says, “You really do have the answers within you.”
Last thing. Putting your self-care first takes setting yourself up as a priority. So by the end of day, take one minute and put it towards your self-care then report back, because we’re here to support you! Remember, if one tool doesn’t work, try something else because ultimately you’re the expert of your life and you have the answers within.