Ways to Prioritize Self-care While Maintaining a Successful Career

It's safe to say that self-care is a major trend these days. The industry is predicted to grow to a whopping $13 billion by 2026, and linking it with personal wellness trends in general would be an astronomical $1.5 trillion. As a result, the term "self-care" has become a bit of a buzzword, with gurus and influencers everywhere promising to share their secrets to the best self-care routine.

However, when it comes to career-oriented professionals with hectic schedules, finding ways to invest in self-care can feel impossible. How do you develop a work-life balance when your career means everything to you? When you don't have an hour a day for personal pampering, how can you find time to recharge?

Self-care is crucial, and failing to find time for it can impact your health and even your career. Fortunately, creating a routine isn't as hard as it sounds! Let's take a look at ways to make time for yourself while maintaining a successful career.

Understand the Principles of Self-Care

As we've mentioned above, the term "self-care" has become a bit of a buzzword. Countless definitions exist, and you'll get a different one for every self-care expert you ask.

For the purposes of this article, self-care means taking care of different facets of your health. As we'll discuss below, it's about more than caring for your physical body, though that's a large part of it. Proper self-care ensures that you prioritize yourself, your happiness, and your well-being.

The right self-care practices will enrich your life and leave you feeling nourished. They often also bring you joy. The self-care practices that refresh your health may not be the same ones that help someone else, and there's no one right way to tackle self-care.  

If there's one thing that most experts can agree on, it's that self-care is non-negotiable. Avoiding self-care is a recipe for failure in the workplace and other areas of your life. 

Types of Self-Care Practices

There are several different ways to address your self-care. Though different people break down the pillars of self-care in different ways, these are the eight general areas of your life that you'll need to care for:

1. Physical

Physical self-care is the foundation of all of the pillars that follow. It involves caring for your physical body through proper nourishment, exercise, and sleep. It may also involve healing from health conditions or injuries.

2. Mental 

Mental self-care helps you create a healthy mindset. It may feed your curiosity or ease your stress. Mindfulness practices also fit under mental self-care.

3. Emotional

This type of self-care focuses on regulating your emotions. It may involve healthy coping strategies or learning to accept and love yourself.

4. Environmental

Taking care of the space around you can be a big part of self-care. This may involve caring for your workspace or home, for example.

5. Spiritual

Spiritual self-care means focusing on the rituals and practices that give you meaning in life. It may involve things like going to a place of worship, practicing yoga, or dedicating time for self-reflection.

6. Social

Building relationships is the key to social self-care. This type of self-care also involves setting healthy boundaries.

7. Recreational

This type of self-care involves spending time on the hobbies and activities you love. It may also mean setting aside time for traveling or new experiences.

8. Financial

Cultivating a healthy relationship with money is the focus of this type of self-care. Financial self-care may involve things like establishing a budget, setting financial goals, or dealing with debt.

Start With the Basics

Next, we'll talk about a few key self-care habits that are crucial for anyone, especially those with hectic careers and little free time. No matter what you do, establishing these habits can help you create a better work-life balance and a healthier lifestyle overall. 

Get Enough Sleep

Sleep is the backbone of your life. It supports healthy bodily functions and allows your mind to recharge overnight. Unfortunately, many working professionals don't get as much sleep as they need. Not only can sleep deprivation wreak havoc on your job performance, but it can also impact your health. 

That's why getting enough sleep is at the heart of any self-care routine. Whatever you do, find a way to get your eight hours in as often as you can. This can help you increase your mood and focus, lower stress, and protect your physical well-being. 

Take Care of Personal Hygiene

When you're rushing to get things done, it's easy to skip personal hygiene practices. Skipping a shower, forgetting to brush your teeth, or postponing washing your hair may seem like the best way to buy a little more time during a busy week. If you work from home, failing to do these things gets even easier.

However, not caring for your personal hygiene can impact your mood and mental health. Mundane self-care rituals are a good way to energize yourself and make you feel a little more grounded and human, so don't be tempted to let them slide!

Learn to Set Boundaries

As we mentioned above, self-care is about prioritizing yourself. That includes your time and energy.

Learning to set boundaries is an essential way of preserving that time and energy while protecting your mental health. Proper boundaries keep you from getting spread too thin in both your personal and professional life. They can even help you avoid burnout at work.

There are many different ways to set boundaries, but it's important to be thoughtful about how you communicate them. Check out this quick guide to learn more.

Seek the Right Activities 

Once you understand the different types of self-care, it's time to consider which activities are right for you. As we've mentioned, there's no "one size fits all" solution to self-care, and everyone is different. It's fun and even necessary to try different self-care practices to see which ones work best for you. 

Here are a few examples of self-care activities worth trying:

• read a book by yourself or to a child in your life
• cook with your family
• meet with your faith community
• take a walk outside
• unplug devices while eating to spend time with family, friends, or coworkers
• meet a friend for coffee
• learn meditation
• clean your desk
• listen to relaxing music
• volunteer in your community
• update your workspace with pictures or artwork
• track your finances

This is only a short list of examples. Any habit that brings you joy and helps you care for yourself in the eight ways mentioned above is a self-care option!

Find Time in Your Schedule

Identifying the best self-care tactics won't help if you have no time! How do you fit self-care into a hectic work schedule? Carving out a moment for your favorite self-care activities may require some brainstorming and assertion. 

If you need a little extra time at work or home, express your needs. If no one knows you need space and time for your mental health, they won't give it to you.

At work, consider reaching out to your supervisor to see how and when you can create a bit of time for a break. You might also want to take a solo lunch break every day or every few days for some alone time. This can give you a chance to meditate, walk to a quiet cafe, read a book, or more.

It's also a good idea to block out some time on your calendar in advance. This ensures that you don't over-fill your schedule, and it's easier to keep a date with yourself when it's on the calendar. Treat this like you'd treat a business appointment: don't back out unless it's an emergency.

Last, don't hesitate to start small. If your weekly schedule is too hectic for a longer period of self-care, a 15-minute walk is a great start. Snatching small windows of opportunity on a regular basis can be a good way to inject more self-care into your day.  

Create Rituals and Reminders

When you're focused on your career, it can be easy to put your self-care habits on the backburner. That's where rituals and reminders come in.

Putting a date with yourself on your calendar, as mentioned above, is a great trick.

You can also try things like setting alarms for specific activities. An alarm to wind down before bedtime, for example, can help you stick to a new sleep schedule. 

If you're trying to get into the habit of unplugging, consider getting your phone to silence notifications by default once you're on your home Wi-Fi. If you want to read more, keep a book at work to snatch up free time at lunch.  If you want to exercise at work, try putting a yoga ball near your desk as a reminder.

Track Goals for Your Self-Care Routine

As with any activity, setting and tracking goals is a great way to persevere and stay motivated. SMART goals are your best option, as their time-based component makes them easy to track. 

Maybe you want to write in your new mindfulness journal three times a week, for example. Maybe you want to stay off your phone for thirty minutes a day while you eat with your family. Whatever your self-care goals are, write them down where you can see them.

From there, try to keep track! You can use whatever method works best for you, from a habit-tracking spreadsheet to a bullet journal. If you'd like to keep things simple, using a calendar and the Seinfeld Strategy is an easy way to do it.

Seek Quality Time

One of the pillars of self-care revolves around your social connection. Our social connections uplift us by boosting our mood, reducing stress, and helping us find support.

Why not take advantage by engaging in self-care with friends, family members, and coworkers? If someone in your social circle enjoys the same types of self-care you do, invite them into your ritual.

Exercising at work with a coworker, for example, can be more fun than doing it alone. Finding ways to network alongside your work friends can make the event an exciting form of self-care. Joining a book club in your community or your office can connect you with other readers and make it easy to stick with your self-care routine.

Consider Additional Resources

Today, there are countless tutorials and gurus for virtually any self-care practice you're interested in trying. These additional resources may help ease your way into self-care, especially if you're trying a hobby or activity that's new to you.

If you're interested in meditation, for example, trying a free or paid meditation app can give you access to guided sessions. This can make it easier to overcome some of the hurdles that make meditation so difficult for beginners.

If journaling is your style, consider buying a mindfulness journal full of prompts. If you're trying to get into bodyweight exercises, a paid subscription to online video tutorials might help you get a healthy lifestyle without pushing yourself too far. 

Sometimes, these additional resources can mean the difference between sticking with or quitting a new routine!

Don't Be Afraid to Adjust Your Routine

Any change to an existing routine will take time. As you work out the kinks through trial and error, you may find yourself adjusting your routine on the go.

There's nothing wrong with this, and there's also nothing wrong with not having a concrete routine. If reaching your career goals means that each day looks different, you may not be able to set a clear schedule. Taking advantage of small opportunities during the day and sticking to your rituals when you get home can be a good way to overcome this.

Add Self-Care to Your Career Development

Establishing a self-care routine is an important part of any career path. No matter what you do, making time for your mental, physical, and emotional well-being is a crucial way to excel. It's also a crucial way to protect your health!

As you work to further your career goals, don't forget that the Honor Society is here to help. If you're already a member, you'll have free access to Career Insider guidebooks as well as opportunities for networking and leadership. If you haven't yet joined, apply to become a member.