Using a Self Care Planner for Overall Wellbeing
Life’s demands can often leave us depleted, which is why purposefully planning self-care is so important. A self care-planner serves as a helpful tool to schedule activities that restore and nourish us across different dimensions of wellness. This article will examine how self care planners work, their key benefits, tips for maximizing them, and resources for creating your own.
What is a Self Care Planner?
A self care planner is a calendar or spreadsheet specifically for mapping out and tracking activities that promote your mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, and social wellbeing. You can list specific practices like meditation, exercising, calling friends, etc. and schedule time for them just as you would regular appointments.
Ideally, a self-care planner incorporates activities across all facets of self-care from daily practices to weekly rituals to occasional indulgences. Planning them ahead ensures you follow through.
Benefits of Using a Planner
There are many excellent reasons to utilize a self care planner:
- Helps prioritize self-care within a busy schedule
- Encourages trying new nurturing activities you may overlook
- Provides structure and rhythm through planning consistent practices
- Allows tracking progress and assessing which activities provide most benefit
- Enables balance through scheduling diverse activities for whole health
- Serves as a visual reminder to follow through on self-care commitments
Tips for Effective Planning
Here are some tips for maximizing the power of your self-care planner:
- Schedule activities spanning mental, physical, social, spiritual realms
- Include both brief, daily practices along with more extended rituals
- Set reminders to complete planned activities or journal afterward
- Make your schedule realistic rather than overly rigid or ambitious
- Review each week/month to celebrate successes and adjust activities that didn’t resonate
- Use a planner format you find visually appealing and motivating
DIY Planner Resources
You can create a self care planner using:
- Bullet journals with customized spreads for self-care
- Digital or paper calendar templates
- Goal tracking worksheets or apps
- Spreadsheets to log and analyze self-care habits
- Premade planners designed for self-care scheduling
The format matters less than setting aside dedicated time to intentionally nurture yourself. Discover the medium that keeps you consistent.
Regularly planning activities that spark joy, strengthen you, reduce stress, and refill your cup enables you to operate from a place of wholeness. Through consistency, small acts of self-love compound into greatly improved mental health and daily empowerment.
Conclusion
Investing in your wellbeing is one of the best gifts you can give yourself and those around you. A self care planner provides essential structure to make self-nurturing a consistent priority rather than an afterthought. Define what self-care means to you, then purposefully plan restorative activities that honor your mind, body and spirit. You deserve it!
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should you schedule self-care activities? Aim for multiple self-care practices across all dimensions each day, even if brief. Build up to longer weekly rituals for yourself too.
What are some quick daily self-care practices? Options include meditating, journaling, stretching, walking breaks, listening to uplifting music, positive affirmations, etc. Little moments refresh you.
When is the best time to work on your self-care planner? Reflect on your current routines and map out a plan either at the start of each week or month. Some find Sunday nights or start of the month work well.
Where can you access planner templates? Many free templates exist online along with self-care journals with templates you can utilize. Find one aligned with your personal style.
How can you stay accountable to your planner? Share your planner with supportive friends or join an accountability group. Review it yourself daily and celebrate successes. Adjust if needed.
Sources:
https://psychcentral.com/blog/imperfect/2018/05/self-care-planning-printable-workbook#1
https://tonyrobbins.com/mental-health/self-care-planner/
https://www.therapistaid.com/worksheets/self-care-planning.pdf