Self Care is at the Heart of Planning

Managing your brain around time requires planning and commitment to your plan.

Planning doesn't sound fun to most people; but what if I said one of the best reasons to plan your time was to ensure you get enough self care?

As a mom, self care is the first thing to go when I don't plan. We all know how our day can so quickly implode. Everyone seems to need us or ask for a piece of our time.

Plan specific times when you will work (whether inside or outside your home), clean your house, do laundry, and prepare dinner.

But even more importantly, plan when you will exercise, prepare a healthy lunch, go get pedicures, read a good book, work on a fun project, and do your spiritual practices.

You may even need to specifically plan when you make phone calls so that you aren't trying to do them during times you set aside for rest and renewal.

Make sure you get all the time-specific things on your calendar (work, volunteering, appointments, etc.), then add your self-care, followed by the week-specific to-do items.

Once we make a plan, the last step is following through on the plan. In other words, we need to keep promises to ourselves about how we spend our time. Follow through on what you planned at least 80% of the time. Otherwise, you will sabotage your self-trust.

Imagine a friend who promises to walk with you six times a week but only shows up once. Would you trust her? Probably not.

Yet, we often do this to ourselves. We set lofty goals and plans but don't follow through, which undermines our self-trust.

Don't just try. Where possible, operate from the emotion of commitment. Commitment says, "I will do this no matter what."

Commitment is the only way to override our survival brain, which prioritizes avoiding pain, seeking pleasure, and conserving energy.

This brain phenomenon is what psychologists call the motivational triad. I will be talking in more detail about this next week.

In the meantime, write down everything that you want to get done this week (based on the values and priorities we identified last week). Then create a plan you can stick with at least 80% of the time.

Most importantly, don't forget to schedule in some time each day for self care.