Self Management Skills for Work/Life Balance, Part 2: How to Make Sure You Do Your Self Care Every Day

In my previous post in this series on Work/Life Balance, I explained the importance of using your Self Awareness to create a set of self care practices (which are one form of Self Management).

I encouraged you to tie your self care practices with your identity goals or the different current roles that you have in your life.

I gave examples of what that looks like for my roles as a mother and as a wife.

Here are two more quick examples of that combination.

I want to be a better writer so I signed up for Ship30for30 to improve my writing and increase my social media influence.

I want to be an excellent employee so I get enough sleep and I practice great time management and productivity skills.

Of course, knowing what your best Self Care activities are is one thing. How will you make sure that you actually do those activities?

I suggest that you use your calendar to schedule them into your day.

Similarly, you could set a daily alarm to remind yourself to do a daily activity if you have determined that there is a time of day that is best for that activity. I use recurring alarms to remind myself that it is time for a certain activity. A lot. Yes, it can be annoying but it works well.

I also suggest the the following if you have trouble making self care a priority:

• get an accountability partner to check in with
• use a habit tracker (paper or app)
• focus on just 3 things per day that really make a difference to your self care
• write self-reminders on Post-It notes, on a white board, on your calendar, etc.

When you manage yourself well, you have the energy and mental clarity to prioritize well and to accomplish your most important work in all areas of your life which will help you improve your Work/Life Balance.

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