Are you ready to start prioritizing yourself
and feeling like your best self every single day?
That's why I'm sharing seven daily self-care habits
you can implement right away today
so that you can start feeling like your best self
and also start practicing prioritizing yourself.
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If we haven't met before,
I'm Megan Minns.
I am a leader
at a multimillion dollar digital marketing company.
I've been a content creator since 2014,
and I'm the mom of one,
and I have habits and routines in place
that truly help me show up
in all these different areas of life
as best as possible
and really help me prioritize myself.
And since I know you're busy,
let's go ahead and jump in right away
to those seven self-care habits you too can implement
on a daily basis, just like I have,
that will help you prioritize yourself
and take care of yourself.
First, journaling.
Journaling is the Windex of solutions.
You have probably heard me mention it
and a lot of different times
if you've been a long-time subscriber here on YouTube
or been following me on Instagram.
I really think journaling
is the best self-care habit you can implement
if you only implement one,
because it's something you can do
in just a couple of minutes.
So if you only have a minute to spare,
you will still get a ton out of it.
Or if you have more time,
like 15 or 30 minutes,
you can have insane breakthroughs
and really understand what's going on beneath the surface.
So my favorite kind of journaling
is actually stream of consciousness journaling,
which I have another video about
that I'll link in the corner
that you can watch
to know about stream of consciousness journaling.
But the reason
that this is the journaling method I recommend
and do so much is that it's versatile.
So on days where you're feeling good
or days where you're feeling bad
or things are feeling heavy,
this tool works regardless
and helps you not only process
any of those thoughts and emotions,
but feel better, work through them.
And even if I only have two minutes,
I find that after those two minutes
I still feel so much better and ready to tackle the day,
and I feel more in control and less overwhelmed by life.
The second thing is very simple.
Get some fresh air every single day if you can.
Whether that's stepping outside for 30 seconds,
taking a deep breath, and that's it,
or if you're able to go on a longer walk
for 20 or 30 minutes,
either way it's better than nothing.
I work from home, as many of us do now,
and I've been working from home since 2015.
And there are days where I don't get fresh air
and I notice a huge difference on my mental well-being
between the days where I make an intentional effort
to get some fresh air
and the days I don't.
So whether you're doing it
as part of a routine every single day
or you use it as a reactive stress management tool,
I highly recommend it.
On days where work is feeling just too much
and it's triggering me
and I'm getting very emotional and frustrated or worked up,
I will find that if I go either take my next meeting
as a walking meeting or I just take a break
and sit outside,
it makes a huge difference
and really, really helps my mental health
and I am actually doing it proactively now
every single day instead of only reactive.
The third thing is to move your body.
I find that by moving my body every single day,
I'm able to get out of my head
and just focus on my physical body,
which really helps me disconnect
from some anxious thoughts or feelings or worries I have.
And by focusing just on my physical movements,
it allows me to get present and engaged in what I'm doing
instead of just thinking about the future or the past,
I'm able to get present.
So whether you have five minutes or 50 minutes,
I really recommend finding a way to move your body
and get present with your physical body every single day.
So that can be stretching,
that can be a full-blown workout,
that can be going on a walk.
Either way, it's gonna help you kinda get present
and check in with yourself.
And I'd actually love to hear from you right now,
so if you are watching,
go down to the comments
and leave a comment saying
what you are going to do today to move your body.
Whether it's a two-minute stretch or a 30-minute walk
or anything else, go ahead and declare that commitment below
while you're watching this video
so that you can have that sense of accountability.
You have declared it.
You've decided already.
You've committed to it,
and then you can always check back in later
and let us know how you felt after you did it.
The next daily self-care habit you should be implementing
is starting and stopping work on time.
Now as someone who really enjoys work
who often struggles with this,
this is the biggest game changer.
And I noticed a huge shift in how I feel day-to-day
if I do or don't do this.
So before your day starts,
make sure you've already decided
what time you're gonna start work,
what breaks you're gonna have,
and when you're gonna stop work
and hold those boundaries.
It can be really hard to hold these boundaries.
It takes a lot of practice to not feel guilt
or some of those weird mindset things that pop up
when you're trying to hold a boundary,
but I really encourage you to share it with someone.
So tell someone what this boundary is,
build your whole day around it
and follow through.
And tell people,
"Hey, I've got a hard stop at 5:00 or 4:00,"
or whatever your day looks like,
and just practice and start making it more natural
to start and stop work on time.
Work is work.
I think I'm gonna do a different video
on emotional/mental boundaries with work.
Work is not your life, even if you are an entrepreneur.
And this skill of holding this boundary with yourself
will be invaluable to taking care of yourself
and prioritizing yourself
and having a integrated life
outside of just what your job is.
The next daily self-care habit
is to have a hobby or do something just for fun
every single day.
So you probably noticed a pattern by now,
these don't all have to be full blown.
So you don't have to have 30 minutes every day
towards your hobby,
even three minutes is better than nothing.
But what are a couple of hobbies
or activiities you like to do that are just for fun.
So they're not personal development
or professional development.
They are fun.
So for me, that's reading fantasy fiction,
romance novels, or playing video games, or computer games,
or sketching.
Those are things that have no outcome other than fun.
And so I try to make time for those every single day.
I even have it on my habit tracker for this month
to make sure that I really am prioritizing doing a hobby
or something for fun every single day.
Next, you wanna make sure
you are only checking your work notifications
at set times during the day.
I don't know if this is just me or not,
but I often would have Slack open all day,
which is what our team uses to communicate.
And it would be so disruptive,
I might be focusing on a project or an important issue,
and I would get a request or a question
and it would totally throw me off.
And even when I was trying to be focused,
I would pop over there.
Even when I try to work through this
and maybe close Slack,
I would still open it every five minutes.
It was almost like a social media,
checking Instagram for no reason.
I would do that with Slack too,
even in my off hours.
So what I have been doing this month
that has been a game changer
is pre-deciding the moments I'm gonna check Slack
and how long I'm gonna be on there
and then close the app for real and don't check it.
Again, it's definitely a habit that can be hard to break
if you're just habitually checking it.
Absolutely recommend when you're planning out your day
to decide those times you're gonna check
however your team communicates,
whether that's email or Slack or Teams,
and stick to that boundary.
Let it be open for 10, 15, 30 minutes,
however long you need to process all your messages
and then close it and wait to check it again
until your next interval.
And the seventh and last daily self-care habit
that I'll be mentioning today
is to plan your day in advance.
I actually have an older video about this
that I'll link here so you can go check that out
for a full walkthrough of how I recommend doing this.
I'll probably do an updated one soon,
because it's been a couple of years.
But this is something that sounds like a productivity tip
but is truly a game changer for taking care of yourself
and making everything we just talked about
actually possible.
Because you can say that you're not gonna check Slack
or that you're going to work out,
but if it's not on your schedule or your calendar,
it's so much harder to follow through on that.
And it's easier to prioritize everyone else
and the reactive stuff coming at you
instead of what you have decided is best for yourself.
So I really recommend that the night before, ideally,
you plan the next day.
And you plan all of your self-care stuff first.
So maybe you have your work stuff on there,
but, okay, when are you gonna move your body?
When are gonna get some fresh air?
When are you gonna check Slack?
When are you gonna do these things?
When are you going to journal?
And then plan everything else around that.
And that way you wake up
and you know exactly what to do.
You're able to follow through
on your commitments to yourself
and then handle work
on the blocks you've agreed you're gonna work,
and then you have your life.
So having this plan is essential
to making these new habits easier.
It doesn't mean it's impossible.
You could not plan your day
and still be able to do these.
But I find it's easier to be consistent
when you have that planned for your day.
And it makes it less of a in the moment decision
and something that you've just already decided
and you just have to follow through on it.
Okay, so now you know the seven daily self-care habits
that you should start implementing right away
in order to feel like your best self
and prioritize yourself,
but like I just mentioned,
sometimes there are tools we can use
to help implement these type of habits easier
and make it more of a done deal
than a day-to-day discipline thing you have to uphold.
And so what I recommend is having a monthly habit tracker
where you write out the habits
you're tracking for that month
that you really want to instill into your day-to-day life
and track them.
And it's best if this could be a satisfying experience,
if you can fill in the box
or do something tactical like that.
I find it has a bigger dopamine hit
for lack of a better word.
So if you don't already have a habit tracker,
I actually already have a monthly habit tracker
set for the entire year
where every month has its own page.
It's a PDF.
You can just download and print and hang up
and start using right away.
You can go to meganminns.com/habit tracker
or click the link beneath this video
to go purchase those right now.
I hope you enjoy them.
They're exactly what I use every single day
and they're hung up on the wall in my bathroom.
If you enjoy this video,
please give it a thumbs up
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so that they can watch it when they get the chance.
I really appreciate you. (upbeat music)
I'm excited to hear
how implementing these daily habits goes for you,
and I'll see you in the next video.
Bye.