How to Make a Self Care Planner – Devote Time for You
“Self-care is not selfish”, we’ve all heard it. As women and mom’s we’ve all fought to fit self-care into our tight schedules. Use a self care planner to get into daily habits of self care. Self-care means taking time to do things that will help you to live better and to enhance both your physical health and your mental health. Anything that you intentionally do to promote your wellbeing.
When you begin deciding what to include in your self-care routine you have to analyze how you currently approach your own needs and self-care. Practicing daily self-care means you are going to have to set aside time each day that you otherwise would have spent with someone else, or doing something else.
Begin spending that time doing something that is good for and nourishing for you. It is more than just a lifestyle change, practicing self-care regularly may have short-term and long-term benefits, leading to better wellness and a better state of health.
Download our simple self-care planner PDF, printable with fillable fields before printing. It will help you determine your self-care goals and get moving towards them.
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What does self care mean to you?
In the most basic sense, self-care is taking care of yourself. Everyone approaches self care differently, because everyone’s needs are different.
For some, self-care may mean taking care of their physical health by going for walks, eating nutritious foods, getting adequate sleep, or just making sure they are able to take a shower every day.
For others, it may mean nurturing your mental health through daily meditation, writing in a guided journal, working on a hobby, or just spending time with friends and family.
Even simple self care enables individuals to take control of their health and wellbeing, giving them an incentive to enhance their quality of life.
So, make a list of current self-care practices. Do you do something every day? Or just when you can steal a moment or two?
Schedule Time for You
Or as is more accurate, do you schedule time for your self-care? I know I didn’t for the longest time. Then go wild and take an entire day to myself, and feel guilty about it.
You can take steps to ensure you are giving your attention to taking care of yourself every day. Begin keeping a self-care journal. When you schedule the extra time, it will become easier to find the time to take care of yourself.
Take the list you created earlier and figure out how you can fit those new self-care activities schedule. Create weekly spreads or use monthly planning pages to schedule time for you.
Look into getting an all-in-one-planner. This is one of the best ways to keep track of everything in one place.
If you don’t keep a daily planner, then make sure to add self-care to your daily to-do list.
What are some simple self-care strategies?
Self-care is taking time off when you are tired. Eating when you are hungry, saying “no” when you do not feel like doing things.
Binge watching TV shows or movies for pleasure and entertainment instead of for self-improvement.
Self-care also includes things like taking care of our physical well-being through exercise.
Restricting your spending so that you can set aside money for large purchases. Create boundaries and adhere to them.
Take the time to explore yourself to find what makes you tick. Start putting that time towards doing things for yourself that are healthy and nourishing.
When you care for yourself well, you are likely to experience improvements in other areas of your life. Improved physical health, less stress and better relationships.
Self Care Planner Tips for Moms
1. Add Self-Care to Your Calendar
Self-care is a priority and most of us don’t make it a priority. Even if it’s just 15 minutes. Schedule your time the same way you schedule everything else in your life, such as work meetings and social engagements at doctors appointments.
2. Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Set small specific goals. Make them measurable. Are they attainable and relevant to you? Set a time limit or end date to accomplish your goals. Creating S.M.A.R.T. goals are easier than you may think and adding action steps helps you get through them.
3. Enforce Boundaries
Learn to say “No” Friends and family can suck up all of our time, and we let them. Be assertive when saying “NO”. You will surely disappoint some people but enforcing your boundaries is important.
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4. Don’t Follow Others – Do you Own Thing
Don’t go with the flow. Self-care is all about you. Do things that bring you happiness or joy, and not just because it is popular or everyone else is doing it.
5. Keep it Simple
When you develop your self care plan, keep it simple. Don’t overcomplicate it or you’ll give up and not stick with it.
Your routine doesn’t have to be complicated or cost you money. Your routine should fit into your current lifestyle.
Ideas for Activities in Your Free Time
Do you find that you have some unexpected time to yourself? Don’t just give in and do the dishes or laundry, focus a few moments on your self-care. Here are some suggestions…
10 Minutes –
- drinking tea
- stretching
- self-massage
- practicing breathing exercises
30 Minutes –
- at-home facial
- practice yoga
- working out
- reading a book
- taking a bath
1 Hour –
- going for a walk
- getting a manicure/pedicure
- dressing up
- journaling
Entire afternoon –
- getting a massage
- taking a class
- hiking
- splurge on TV series or a movie
- go shopping (Amazon!)
When you are unsure about making time for yourself, analyze how good it feels to steal those few moments.
Then realize that you deserve to have time to take care of you. You’ll be amazed by your personal growth!
Mental Self Care
It means doing things that care for our minds, bodies, and souls, engaging in activities that foster wellness and decrease stress. Mental self-care involves activities that help clear clutter from the mind and lower your stress levels.
Increasing our positive mindset and quieting the negative thoughts. Finding your inner strength to be there for YOU!
In your wellness journal, begin tracking mood patterns. Do certain moods coincide with foods, or activities?
You can build up a personalized set of proactive self-care habits to help you keep your mind healthy and well.
When you are feeling stressed and in need of some quiet time, try to focus on the sensations around you. What do you see, smell, hear, taste and physically feel?
By engaging in emotional self-care on a regular basis, and learning how to be kind to yourself, you can build healthy coping mechanisms that dramatically improve your happiness and feelings of wellbeing.
If you set aside a few moments every day to care for your wellbeing, you will reap the rewards in the form of positive perspectives and improved mental health.
Physical Self Care
Physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally, self-care can be the best thing you do for yourself and for others.
If you don’t take care of yourself, you are going to be hurting your health, and it can be difficult to maintain physical and mental health.
Caring for your physical health can mean eating more fruits and vegetables to fuel your body, staying hydrated, or limiting carbs.
You are likely familiar with getting plenty of sleep, eating healthful foods, and exercising. If you enjoy yoga (like I do) figure out the best position to stretch your back, or increase your overall flexibility.
Just put a healthy plan into action today.
What should a self-care planner include?
The self care planner is a combination of fitness planners and meal planners along with so much more. Self care planners help you focus in meaningful and effective ways.
Not to mention, help guide you through choosing healthy goals, gives you inspiration, and helps you keep track of your time. This way you can create the routine that is perfect for you and fits in your daily life.
So what does a self care planner include? These are some common pages found in the best planners.
- Daily fillable schedule goal planning
- Holistic planning system – how do you plan to meet physical, emotional, and spiritual needs
- Check-in sheet to track goals
- Daily gratitude journal pages
- Stress, anxiety and mood trackers
- Affirmations, inspiring quotations, and areas of procrastination
- New healthy habit goals
- Vitamin and medication sheets
- Exercise routine and/or fitness plan
- Space to plan meals, water intake, and shopping list
- Hours of sleep and screen time tracker
- Weekly goal setting to track your personal wellness journey
- Monthly reflection, new activities ideas
- Added planner pages for notes and ideas
After using your self-care planner for several days, you can see what parts of your life you are working on, and what parts are falling behind and needing a little extra attention.
Write down the good things that happened during the day, and reflect upon them at the end of the week.
Start writing down daily thankfulness, things that made you happy, quotes that you liked and other reminders.
Benefits of Wellness Planner
Are you feeling a little under-self-cared-for? Many things can interfere with our ability to take care of ourselves. Including the caregiving duties of our families, jobs, social obligations, etc. But, in the end, when we actually do take care of ourselves and our needs, that is when we are at our most capable of showing up for everyone else in our lives.
Become more compassionate with yourself, get insight into your patterns, and work toward your self-care and self-love goals. Feeling your overall health improve each step of the way.
Trust a working mom, once you start making self-care a priority, you will notice how other areas of your life improve. Use our checklist as a guide, helping you to come up with an easy way to pay attention to yourself – even if it is only for a moment at a time.
Let us know how you like your self-care planner printable, and share the ways you find to pamper yourself!
