It’s not a secret that our life becomes easier and more enjoyable when we operate at our best; and when we are at our best, we do things in a more productive and efficient way. Therefore, I am a firm believer that the most important thing we can do to make our lives more productive and enjoyable is to take care of ourselves first and foremost every single day.
When we feel our best, our brain functions more efficiently, our mood is better, our body is more efficient; we can focus more, our relationships go smoother, and everything just flows better throughout the day, and we tend to enjoy more of whatever it is that we do.
I have put together a list of a few easy things that we can do every single day to take care of ourselves in order to feel good and have a more enjoyable day regardless of what challenges we might face on a daily basis.
#1 – Rise and Shine
Easier said than done, right? Yes, I agree! I must confess that I don’t always wake up feeling like shining, as a matter of fact, one of the hardest things that I have to do is to wake up at 3:45am and feel like doing anything at all, “shining” included.
For the past 8 years, working shift work, I
have woken up at 3:45am thinking the exact same thing every single time: “I hate this!”. Not once have I woken up at 3:45am thinking that I felt great, and for obvious reasons, our body is not designed for shift work, but I do what I have to. That being said, I do have to admit that waking up at 3:45am and jumping out of bed right away, does make me feel a lot better through out the day than on my days off when I choose to hit the snooze button for a whole hour before getting out of bed at 6:30am, when all along my plan was to get up at 5:30am. – Facepalm -
When I do this, I wake up feeling lazy and tired and end up dragging all morning, causing me to waste a lot of precious hours that I could have used to accomplish something that would make me happy.
So... tip #1 is: wake up at a reasonable time and at all costs, avoid hitting that snooze button! I know it is tempting and the bed feels nice and cozy, but your day will go a lot better if you make the hard decision to just get your ass up!
#2 – Go to bed early!
Tip number 2 goes hand in hand with tip number 1, going to bed early does make waking up early a hell of a lot easier. We all tend to be more productive during day hours, it is the natural rhythm of our body. Once the sun starts to go down and night starts to fall our mind naturally associates that with rest and winding down, so to make better use of our productive time, it is a better choice to make the most use of day light hours for work and night time hours for rest and recharging, rather than trying to catch up with work that wasn’t done during the day due to wasted hours in the morning, that can very easily become a very stressful life style.
Now, life isn’t perfect and some of us (myself included) have chaotic schedules that involves switching shifts back and forth between days and nights and that alone can be a huge cause for sleep deprivation, stress, anxiety along with other health issues. I will soon write an article about my personal experience with shift work and how I have managed it over the years.
But here are a few quick tips on how to make night shift more manageable:
- Avoid scheduling appointments, deliveries or anything that will keep you from getting enough rest during the day when you have to work night shift. I know it is tempting because you want to get things done but try to minimize this to when it is absolutely necessary.
- Try to schedule your vacation, time off or medical leave during the days when you are scheduled to work night shift. Minimizing the amount of night shift that you work can be beneficial to your overall health.
- Do whatever you can to make your room dark during the day, I know black our curtains and blinds can be expensive but they are worth it. If you are rolling on a budget though, you can use foam boards cut to size to cover your windows and they will work just as well.
- Try keeping your eating routine the same as on your days off, eat breakfast before going to bed, eat lunch when you wake up and dinner at a reasonable time, avoiding late night full meals is beneficial.
- Splurge on your bedding, buy luxury pillows and blankets if you can, it might be the best thing you have ever done, make your sleep time as enjoyable as possible, its hard enough having to sleep at odd hours of the day when everyone else is awake, so make the best out of it.
- Night shifts are hard, (unless you’re a natural night owl, then kudos to you!) so do what works best for you and ask your family to be understanding of your sleep schedule. It can be hard with children in the house and the tv during the day, little feet running around can sound like big gorillas when you’re trying to sleep, but it is doable, your family loves you and they want the best for you specially if you are the main provider, they should only be appreciative of your sacrifice and they should be able to make a little sacrifice as well for the greater good of the family.
#3 - Eat Better!
This is a hard one for most people, but specially for all the busy people out there because when we are busy, we usually tend to ignore the importance of our meal time, sometimes we skip lunch all together to take care of work or most of the time we just eat whatever is easier and faster.
This is one thing that I have to be especially conscious about; so I decided that instead of focusing so much on making all my meals consistently healthy and planned out, I try incorporating healthy food into whatever I’m eating. For instance, I try eating at least one serving of fruit for breakfast and another throughout the day; strawberries and blueberries are my friends because they are quick and easy. I also try to incorporate servings of vegetables in my meals and as snacks, for example carrots with ranch, or avocados in my sandwich, asparagus and broccoli are easy and quick to cook, those are usually my go to veggies.
An easy tip is, regardless of what you eat, eat a little less specially if it is a meal high in calories; also, you can always cut back on carbs and sugars, specially before bed time and you’ll be in the right track to feeling healthier in no time! Of course, this is based on my own experience and personal research for a healthier lifestyle, I am not a nutritionist, you should always consult with a health care provider before making significant changes to your diet.
#4 – Spend time on your selfcare routine
I have become particularly fond of my “me” time, especially of long showers and my night time skin care routine. Just doing those two things every day makes me feel like I am not neglecting myself. Long showers provide me with alone time that is both relaxing and enjoyable where I don’t have to worry about work, schedules, tasks, cleaning, laundry or anything other than myself. Taking care of my skin every day also makes me feel better about myself, especially when I start seeing improvement and feel good in my own body.
Of course those are just simple things that I actually have to do every day, there are a number of easy small things that can be done on a daily basis as selfcare, for example: enjoying a nice bath with your favorite wine, wearing something that you feel good in and well put together, a new hair style, a little change on your make up routine, wearing the perfume or cologne that you haven’t worn in a long time, or the nice expensive jewelry that you have been saving for a special occasion that hardly ever happens.
Bottom line is, make yourself a priority, because you are important and once you feel good in your own skin, life will become a little brighter and your days more enjoyable.
#5 – Do something nice to yourself and another.
If you are a busy person, more than likely a lot of what you do is mainly for others, you work long hours to provide for your family, to run your company, to make sure your loved ones have everything they need on a daily basis, to help your elderly parents, to make sure your boss is happy, to make sure you meet the deadline to benefit the company you work for; and the list goes on and on about all the things we do that takes a lot of our time, then the end of the day comes and soon the end of the month and next thing you know, the year is over.
Then you look back and you don’t remember the last time you did anything for yourself, or the last time anyone did anything for you, because in reality, you feel like people don’t have to do anything for you because you’re just happy doing for others. And it’s ok to feel that way, but we all need to take the time to really show appreciation for ourselves and all the hard work that we do and to show appreciation for the people that surrounds us, because if we don’t, what is the point of doing any of it, if we are just doing it to get things done but never actually appreciate anything.
So take the time to pat yourself on that back and appreciate everything that you do, do something nice for yourself, even if it is something small like buying a new lipstick at the end of a rough day at work, or a new pair of shoes... or go all out and buy yourself that expensive wine and pair of diamond earrings that you deserve for doing so well on your sales this year, or for you promotion, you deserve that! The recognition doesn’t always have to come from someone else, it can come from yourself, because at the end of the day nobody other than you knows exactly how hard you worked for that promotion, the long sleepless nights, the endless phone calls. Nobody knows that you had to work in the heat or the rain all week, and the number of stairs you had to climb, or the stress of dealing with hazardous materials all day long. But you do! So, celebrate yourself and recognize your hard work!
And while you’re at it, remember to recognize those around you, do something nice for them, even if it is just a text to let your mom know that you recognize all her hard work while raising you, or your dad that you appreciate all his sacrifices, or your siblings of how important they are to you and most importantly, your spouse, let them know how much you love them and how much you appreciate them for putting up with your demands, and for taking care of your needs and the children’s and for putting up with your grouchy butt when you didn’t get enough sleep for working so much!
What’s really important in life is to appreciate and enjoy everything that we do whether it’s work, school or a vacation, a meal, a nap, our children, our spouses and our home because if we are not enjoying those things we are not actually living, we are just busy doing a whole bunch of things and checking them off on our to do list and not even taking the moment to appreciate everything that we have accomplished, big or small.
#6 – Breathe!
This is the last tip that I am going to include in here and if you don’t remember anything that you read on this article today, please remember this one!
Breathe!!! Again! Breathe!
It doesn’t matter what you are doing at any given moment, it doesn’t matter how hard it is, how challenging, how scary or overwhelming it may seem, you can always do this one thing, take a step back and breathe! This will instantly make you feel a little better, it will make you realize that doesn’t matter the situation you are facing, you are ok and you are going to be ok.
So whatever it may be, if your day is a mess, if you woke up late and will be late for a meeting, your tire is flat, your car broke down, you didn’t meet the deadline, you lost your job, you lost your home, your boss is mad at you, you feel like you’re being spread thin, your children are sick or just plainly driving you insane, your parents are sick, your world is falling apart, just take a deep breath and then do it again! Realize that you can handle anything that is thrown at you, like you have in the past and realize that no matter what, you are strong enough and you got this!
Based on my personal experience of being a busy person, and always trying to get things done; I believe that these few tips alone can help improve daily life significantly. I do have a lot more tips that I plan on sharing here, to make our busy lives a little easier, a little more enjoyable and lot more productive.
Love, Juliana.