Think again.
Here are 9 creative ways you can intertwine self-care into your routine:
No 20-minute meditation block?
- Meditate while waiting.
- Meditate while eating.
- Meditate while commuting. Commit to no podcasts, music, or phone use of any kind. Just drive mindfully, focus on your breath, and notice all that’s filling your senses in the world around you.
No 40-minute reading block?
- Try audiobooks instead. “Read” while driving, while doing chores, while exercising, etc.
- Try the 5-page rule. Read no more and no less than 5 pages in the morning, afternoon, and at night… and inside any other pockets of time you can swing throughout the day.
- Read from your phone. Instead of obsessively checking social media throughout the day, download a reading app that allows you to consume books as you would social media. I average ~2 hours of screen time per day… imagine if all of that was devoted to reading…
No 1-hour exercise block?
- Focus on getting 10k+ steps. Park further away everywhere you go. Do a lap around the office/ neighborhood a few times throughout the day. Take the family/ dog out on a longer than usual walk.
- Exercise in pockets. Pick a bodyweight exercise and do 3-5 max-ish sets throughout the day. Push-ups every 3 hours. Lunges every 4 hours. Sit-ups whenever you enter or leave the house.
- Do an abbreviated workout. You don’t need 1 hour to get an excellent workout. Do 2 exercises every minute on the minute for whatever time you have (e.g. 5 push-ups, 10 squats, done each minute for 10 minutes). Go for a 15 minute run around your block. Do as many burpees as you can in 5 minutes.