Key takeaways
- A personalized self-care checklist is important as self-care needs differ for everyone, and an effective plan must consider your unique habits, time constraints, and financial situation.
- To build a practical self-care routine, assess what you enjoy, what you can realistically commit to, and what has brought you peace in the past, ensuring the activities genuinely support your well-being without adding stress.
- A comprehensive self-care plan addresses both physical needs, such as sleep, nutrition, and exercise, and mental and emotional needs, including stress reduction, healthy boundaries, and meaningful social connections.
Self-care routines are steps you can take daily, weekly, or even monthly to help support or improve your physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
By creating a checklist, you can more easily keep on top of your health needs. Making a checklist can also take the stress out of remembering to focus on self-care!
There’s no one-size-fits-all self-care checklist, despite what the internet might tell you. So, how are you supposed to know what works for you?
To get some insight, we reached out to P. Jeremy Dew, licensed professional counselor and clinical director of The Oakwood Collaborative in College Station, Texas.
“It’s important to think about the needs currently going unmet and the self-care that is uniquely fit to meet those needs,” he says.
A solid self-care checklist will reflect yourspecific needs, habits, and time considerations. It might take a little effort to develop, but you’ll probably find this investment entirely worth it in the long run.
Self-care doesn’t look the same for everyone. Your go-to approach for managing stress may not help somebody else. And even partners in close, healthy relationships tend to have different needs for things like companionship, exercise, and leisure time.
A self-care routine checklist is a detailed lists of steps you can take to support your:
- physical health
- mental health
- overall well-being
As you get into the specifics of self-care, use the following questions to help keep your plan workable and relevant to your needs.
Do I see myself using this approach?
Your self-care plan won’t have much benefit if you don’t put it into action.
Maybe you’ve read about the benefits of gardening and want to start a garden, but you really dislike dirt, and grubs and worms churn your stomach.
In this case, an indoor garden of succulents or other easy-care plants might be a good alternative.
While you can absolutely work to overcome these issues if you wish to, there’s no need to force yourself to do something you don’t enjoy.
If you truly don’t see yourself sticking with something, remember: You have plenty of other options.
Do finances factor in?
Say you join an expensive gym with the goal of exercising more. If you only stop in once a week, you might end up feeling more stressed by the cost than recharged from the increased activity.
At the same time, it can be OK to spend money on something that really works.
A good rule of thumb is to make sure any costs in your self-care routine don’t increase your stress.
Am I trying to do too much?
While self-care is important, you canburn yourself with it.
Overloading your schedule with activities meant to boost wellness can leave you feeling the opposite of relaxed.
Too many commitments, even enjoyable ones, tends to increase stress, since they leave you without time to simply sit and process your own thoughts — another essential part of self-care.
When do I have the time?
When it comes to self-care, best practice means regular practice. Self-care should happen all the time, not just when you feel most stressed.
After all, regularly tending to your needs can help prevent you from reaching a point of high stress in the first place.
Try to make self-care goals you can accommodate alongside work and other responsibilities.
Physical self-care needs include the things that help keep your body functioning well.
When considering physical self-care, identify the needs you have, and note any steps you currently take to meet those needs.
If you notice any areas where you’d like to make changes, emphasize these in your self-care plan.
Sleep
Most adults need around
It’s pretty common not to get the recommended amount of sleep, but here’s the good news: You can often improve both the quantity and quality of your sleep on your own.
Where possible, setting a realistic bedtime that’s roughly 7 to 9 hours before you need to wake up can be beneficial as part of your self-care routine.
Healthcare
Good self-care can involve setting aside time to discuss any health concerns with a healthcare professional.
Regular visits with a healthcare professional can help you catch health concerns in early stages, potentially before they become serious. Issues that start small can quickly get worse and affect other aspects of health, such as sleep and appetite.
While some parts of your self-care routine can occur daily or weekly, you can set aside some time a few times per year, or more frequently if necessary, to schedule an appointment with a healthcare professional.
Eating
Good nutrition doesn’t just involve the types of food you eat.
Eating a balanced diet and mostly choosing foods that nourish you over foods that offer few health benefits certainly helps protect your health.
It’s just as important to consider howyou eat. It’s best to give yourself enough time to eat slowly, at regular intervals, so you can pay attention to what you eat and enjoy your meals?
Mindful eating and intuitive eating are two approaches that can help you feel more satisfied with food, which can make it easier to enjoy any foods in moderation without restricting yourself or setting stressful limits.
Setting aside some time for meals can be a daily part of your self-care routine.
Exercise
Physical activity guidelines generally recommend that adults aim for a minimum of
Exercising can feel like an unpleasant chore when you don’t like what you’re doing. If it feels fun or even recreational, however, you’ll probably want to do it more often.
When adding exercise to your self-care plan, choosing activities you enjoy (or at the very least don’t mind doing) is key. If you hate running, consider investing in a bike or pair of roller skates instead of running shoes.
You may choose to exercise at the same times each week, or you may prefer to mix up your days and activities.
Physical intimacy
People often use “intimacy” as a stand-in for “sex.” But other types of physical contact also play an important role in wellness.
Touch is a basic human need, and touch starvation can have health consequences for some people.
Looking for some self-care strategies that fulfill touch needs?
Try:
- getting a massage (professionally, or swap massages with a friend or partner)
- hugging a loved one or giving yourself a hug
- finding a cuddle buddy
- getting a pet or volunteering to pet-sit
Mental needs refer to cognitive needs as well as mental health needs. In other words, you’ll want to consider what energizes your brain and keeps you feeling sharp.
Stress reduction
Stress levels play a significant part in mental health.
A good way to get started is to explore things currently stressing you out. How are you managing those issues? Can you get rid of any? If not, how can you handle them more effectively?
There are many tips that can help with stress reduction, and some may work better for you than others. It may be useful to set aside time as part of your self-care routine to try some fo the following:
- gentle exercise, such as yoga
- trying a new hobby, such as gardening or knitting
- getting creative by painting, writing, or trying another artistic activity
- spending time outdoors among nature
- spending time with loved ones or pets
Boundaries
Strong boundaries help you protect the time you set aside for yourself, which can, in turn, help keep stress in check.
Setting these limits might involve:
- saying no when you’d rather not do something
- not volunteering for extra work
- communicating needs directly to others
Cognitive abilities
Expanding and strengthening your mind can have a lot of benefit for overall wellness.
Boosting cognitive skills might involve:
- learning something new
- creating art
- reading
- playing brain games to improve concentration
Therapy
For many people, counseling makes up an important part of self-care. Working through any mental health symptoms with a professional can help you see significant improvement, which can have positive benefits for emotional and physical health.
Professional support can help even when you don’t have specific symptoms. Everyone faces challenges, and letting them build up can lead to burnout and stress.
If you feel overwhelmed for any reason, therapy provides a space to explore coping strategies and talk through anything on your mind.
Take breaks
Letting yourself zone out and relax from time to time gives your brain space to recharge, which promotes optimal function.
If your attention often wanders, this could suggest you’re not getting enough mental relaxation. Self-care might include some technology breaks when you feel overstimulated.
Try things such as doodling, nature walks, or short naps to let your brain rest.
Setting aside time for play and fun also makes a difference. A schedule full of things you have to do and nothing you want to do is often an early sign of impending burnout.
Feelings and emotions can provide clues about what’s missing in your life. Emotional self-care revolves around getting in touch with your feelings, learning to understand what they have to say, and using this information to better protect emotional health.
Mindful awareness
It’s tough to let your emotions guide you when you don’t know what they mean.
Make it a goal to spend more time sitting with your feelings, since this makes it easier to acknowledge emotional needs and recognize when they go unmet.
If you have trouble connecting with your feelings, meditation or journaling might be great additions to your self-care plan. Sharing your feelings with people you trust can help, too.
Companionship
Most people need to spend some time interacting with others in meaningful ways, though specific needs for social interaction can depend on personality and other factors.
If you often feel lonely, you might need to spend more time connecting. If you often feel overwhelmed around people, consider making alone time a bigger priority.
You can fulfill socialization needs by spending time with friends and loved ones, but branching out and making new connections in your community can also have benefit.
Your emotional state can guide you to the type of interaction you need in any given moment.
“Consider whether you want to be around friends who will help you remember or friends who will help you forget. Friends who help you remember make space for you to feel deeply. Friends who help you forget might help you care for yourself by inviting you to do something fun,” Dew explains.
Affection
Most of us want to know and be reminded that other people love us.
Affection might involve spoken words, kind gestures, or physical touch. Lacking this type of emotional support can trigger feelings of isolation, even anxious or depressed thoughts.
It’s not always easy to get the affection you need, especially if you don’t have many friends, are between relationships, or don’t have interest in dating.
If you need more affection in your life, consider a pet. Not only do they provide affection and companionship, they sometimes help with other self-care needs, such as exercise and getting outside.
Once you’ve identified your personal needs, you can start to create a list of daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly needs.
Keep in mind that self-care needs often change over time, particularly when taking into account what’s happening in the world.
Think of your self-care plan as a living document, one that grows with you. Revisiting it regularly can help you identify less impactful strategies and add in more beneficial approaches.
If sticking to your plan proves challenging, visual reminders could help. You might try:
- a wall chart
- a self-care planner or journal
- reminders on your phone
Self-care needs vary a lot from person to person, and this guide isn’t exhaustive.
It’s important to focus on physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Some activities can be daily or weekly, while others may be monthly or even yearly.
You may also wish to speak with a healthcare professional for guidance on meeting your self-care needs based on individual circumstances.
Crystal Raypole has previously worked as a writer and editor for GoodTherapy. Her fields of interest include Asian languages and literature, Japanese translation, cooking, natural sciences, sex positivity, and mental health. In particular, she’s committed to helping decrease stigma around mental health issues.