Why Track Your Self Care and How to Do It
Last updated on April 24th, 2024 at 05:29 pm
Self care is more important than almost anything else because if you don’t properly give yourself the care needed, you won’t be the best version of yourself. Below you’ll find a fun self care habit tracking method to help you prioritize yourself.
What Self Care is Not
When you think of self care you may be inclined to think that it’s being selfish. However, to get a better picture of what self care is, how about we look at what it is not. Then, you can come to your own conclusions.
Self care is not:
- Ignoring others around you
- Putting yourself first all the time
- Being consumed with your own needs
- Checking out to lick your wounds
How you achieve your self care is personal. It’s unique to everyone and includes everything from your habits to your hobbies.
Self Care Ideas
Some great ways to give yourself a bit of care include:
- Going to the spa for a massage or facial (or both!)
- Doing your own manicure or pedicure
- Taking a vacation
See this printable self care tracker for a list of 26 self care ideas to track
How to Make Time for Self Care
Now that the mental wheels are turning and you should now see that self care is not about being self absorbed or consumed with your own needs, let’s look at how you can actually make time for it.
First, the best way to make time for your self care is to actually track what you are going to do and when you are going to do it. That’s right. You have to schedule it.
Just like you schedule time for appointments and other meetings, you need to schedule time for when you plan to administer or have some self care administered. By that I mean, your day (or few hours) at the spa. Or, that DIY pedicure. Again, it’s personal and based on what is important to you.
Then, once you’ve scheduled whatever it is you’re going to do or have done, you need to keep track of when you did/got it done last.
Self Care Habit Tracking With “The Last Time I….” Sheet
The Last Time I sheet is a fun way of tracking the last time you did something for your personal care. These are things that you don’t necessarily do all the time. So, you need to keep track of these activities so you don’t go too long between doing them each time.
For example, I like to track the last time I henna’d my hair. I also like to track the last time I went to a spa. I don’t have it in my budget to go to the spa weekly or evenly month. Yet, making sure I make it to the spa a few times a year is important to me. Using the “Last Time I” sheet helps me keep track of things like this.
I simply print the sheet out and pop it in my planner where I will see it on a regular basis. Then, I make sure to track whenever I’ve given myself a bit of self care.
I was first introduced to this system by Alaina from The Organized Money. She’s all about organization and planning your life. That’s my jam too but my ultimate goal is staying sane.
You can find my personally designed Last Time I self care habit tracker on Etsy by visiting https://www.etsy.com/listing/1041485943/self-care-tracker-printable-last-time-i
