We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded by demands on our attention.
Phones and devices that ping and notify us of emails and texts, calls and notifications from apps that tell us what we need to do, and often, that we need to do it now. It’s tiring, but it’s also not a productive way to live.
It can take a lot to focus these days, and to focus on just one thing at a time, because multitasking doesn’t really exist, it is simply oscillating your attention quickly between two (or more) different tasks. Which can be exhausting and prevent us not only from completing the tasks as best we can, but getting the most from those tasks.
Productivity is not a juggling act of doing the most tasks at once, “getting stuff done”, it’s about taking the tasks in order that produces the best outcomes.
The Power of Planning
It’s not just enough to plan our work, or our professional activities, we also need to create a self-care plan so that when we need to, we take care of ourselves, as well as taking care of business.
Though, as with professional tasks, it’s important to take self-care one task at a time as part of a plan so that we can fully embrace care, not give it half of our attention. Or a third. Or a quarter.
Initially, we need to identify our priorities and what areas they sit in. Self-care is not this one all-encompassing thing we work on, it’s many different things.
Self-care can be how we talk to ourselves, positively or negatively. It can be how we motivate ourselves, or how we enforce self-discipline. It can be an internal sense for when we need to connect with others, and when we need time for ourselves. Along with any number of other things.
The Benefits of Self-care Planning
As in almost any other facet of our lives, planning simply gives us a significantly improved chance of success.
Imagine the dance company that doesn’t plan rehearsals, performances, touring or costuming. The odds that the right dancers will be in the right venue ready to dance together in the right costumes is minimal at best, relying heavily on luck.
We cannot take that approach with something as important as our self-care.
So as spring comes around, a natural time to consider how we want to develop, to “blossom” in the coming months, self-care planning should occupy a part of that process too. So that for all the things we learn, for all the professional targets we set ourselves, we are coming to everything from a place of caring and compassion.
So that whatever the outcome of our endeavours, we take care of ourselves.
To learn more about practicing self-care and winning back your vibrancy, you may be interested in reading my book Stepping Stones to Self-Care.
If you’d like some support with taking better care of yourself, please contact me here.
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