Self-care and personal growth are not luxuries reserved for a certain group of ‘career women’ – they are essential to face life’s challenges with energy and focus. Especially as a working woman with a busy schedule, you know the feeling of constantly having to juggle. Your energy is a valuable commodity and managing it strategically is often crucial.
But hand on heart: who has time for hours of self-care rituals? Between work, family and all the other roles we fill every day, there is often hardly any room for ourselves. But here’s the trick: it’s not the big, elaborate rituals that make the difference, but the small, catchy habits.
That’s why I’ve put together ten simple but effective micro-habits for you today. They are easy to integrate into your everyday life and will help you to not only become more productive, but possibly also a little happier – step by step.
1. from consumption to production
Do you constantly read inspiring articles and books, but never put what you’ve learned into practice? I promise you, you’re not alone! The key is not only to absorb knowledge mentally, but also to put what you have learned into practice, i.e. to turn it into something productive. For every hour you spend learning something, you should spend around two hours putting what you’ve learned into practice.
Example: After listening to an exciting podcast, call a friend and tell her about it or try out an insight straight away. It is important to “tip” what you have heard, said or read directly into an action and not just consume it and, in the worst case, simply forget it a few days later. Another example would be to write down interesting statements in an article, but to write them down as a quote in your notebook, for example. The transfer work from head to paper allows the magic to work automatically.
2. mini-breaks for body and mind
How often do you ignore the tension in your body? Regular breaks help you to pause and feel inside yourself. Take a deep breath, relax your shoulders or stretch a little and stand up. It takes less than 30 seconds, but the effect is enormous: you lower your stress levels and increase your awareness of your own needs.
Incidentally, an exciting publication on the topic of stress reduction in this context was published by A. D. (Bud) Craig in Nature Reviews Neuroscience back in 2009. According to this, improving interoception can help to significantly reduce stress and emotional strain.
3. eat smarter, not less
When it comes to self-care, we can’t avoid the topic of food. But I would like to admit one thing openly here: When I hear the word “diet” in this context, it sends shivers down my spine, as it sounds like renunciation and flagellation. Who actually said that you have to give up everything you like for a healthy life? Ultimately, it’s more about the order in which you eat your food: Eat vegetables first, then proteins and fats, then carbohydrates and finally sugar. This prevents “blood sugar spikes” and keeps you full of energy throughout the day. The positive side effect of this is that as sugar only comes at the end, at best you will consume less of it as you are already full. If you would like to read a little more about this, I can recommend the book “Glucose Goddess” by Jessie Inchauspe, who writes in great detail about stabilizing blood sugar and the positive effects that even small changes can have.
4. small time-outs in nature
Nature is the ultimate stress killer and the best thing is: you can use it for free. A walk in the park, watering your houseplants or simply looking out of the window into the greenery is enough to lift your mood. There are countless studies that have been known to us since the 1990s and show that even short periods spent in nature improve your concentration and memory. In Japan, this concept has long been known as “forest bathing” (= Shinrin Yoku). So the active impulse after reading this text would definitely be to plan a 15-minute walk between your countless meetings or even go one step further and put a few plants on your desk and in your office.
5. compliments make you happy
A tip that I find missing in pretty much all guides, even though we all know it: A sincere compliment works wonders – not just for the recipient, but for you too. Whether it’s the colleague who successfully completed a project or the cashier with a great smile – these small gestures create a positive connection. A sincere compliment costs you nothing. However, it may end up being what the person repeats at the dinner table in front of their family because it touched them so much or writes in their gratitude journal because it made their (perhaps stressful) day a little brighter.
6. the 2-minute tidying technique
Sorry to all cleaning grumps, but here’s the unvarnished truth: tidying up is good for our psyche. Tidying up your surroundings every day not only reduces the physical clutter in your home or office, it can also help with mental stress. A tidy room promotes concentration and provides greater clarity. A small tip is to integrate tidying up as a natural routine. For example, after you get up, make your bed immediately and give it a quick airing. While your PC is booting up, put away everything on your desk that you don’t need. While you’re brushing your teeth, you start the coffee machine, etc. The less effort it takes for you, the more it will become a habit that you will eventually no longer even consciously notice.
7. reduce mental loads
My favorite technique when my head is “overflowing” with thoughts is the so-called “brain dump”. This helps you to minimize your mentalload. Thoughts, to-dos and worries are simply written down unfiltered. If you find writing difficult, you can also speak it out as a kind of memo. You can also switch to visualization, e.g. in a mind map. This approach helps you to set priorities. In this way, you can “park” thoughts that don’t have priority at the moment but shouldn’t be forgotten for a while so that you can bring them up again at another (suitable) moment.
8. practicing gratitude
Before you roll your eyes because this isn’t a real tip, let me tell you from personal experience: gratitude is a real miracle weapon and should not be underestimated under any circumstances. A little gratitude journal or a kind message to a friend is enough to change your perspective for the better. Gratitude not only improves your mental health, but also your physical health. I myself have kept a gratitude journal for 5 years and believe me: I was high on the list of “skeptics” before that and have actually been proven wrong. It’s amazing what you discover when you know that at least 3 things “have to” be written down in your booklet in the evening. Suddenly, after a few weeks, the focus of your brain changes and it automatically starts looking for the things you can be grateful for during the day – for me, an absolute game changer.
9. develop self-compassion
Who hasn’t heard the saying: “Treat yourself as you would treat a good friend, then you’ll stop being so hard and unfair on yourself.”
Treating yourself with the same kindness as others, especially in difficult moments, is not that easy, but it changes your self-image in the long term. Incidentally, there is also a nice “counter-concept” to the gratitude diary, namely the “misery journal”. Here, for example, you write down the areas in which you supposedly failed, what went wrong and where you said or did embarrassing things, with the premise that you then note down what you have learned from this, how you would do things differently if the situation were to happen again or who you would ask for advice or support next time in order to successfully master the situation.
Incidentally, this also applies to things that we can’t actually change, such as a missed train or bad weather. After all, you can learn something from every situation, right? But if you’re rolling your eyes now, then grab your gratitude diary in situations like this, because you were given time (= delayed train) and the opportunity to experience rain, smell it and feel it on your skin. What else makes us alive? Sorry, a complete optimist has been lost on me. So I refuse to look at a situation solely from the negative side, please bear with me.
10. stay open to unexpected opportunities
The best opportunities often come unexpectedly. Whether it’s an invitation to an event, a spontaneous meeting or a new project – sometimes the most valuable professional or personal relationships arise from them. We are usually so focused on our careers and success, especially professionally, that we simply don’t take advantage of some opportunities because we don’t think they will contribute to the path we are on. I can tell you from my own experience that the best opportunities have always opened up to me when I was on the verge of not taking them. Most articles talk about learning to say no. I would like to invite you to say “yes” more often. This is best done outside your comfort zone, because this is where the magic happens.
Conclusion: small steps, big impact
I hope these tips have impressively shown you that self-care doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. The micro-habits presented can change your life in a surprisingly simple way by integrating them into your everyday life as you wish and thereby creating more balance, energy and satisfaction – without any additional stress.
As each habit has to pass the individual practical test, it is of course clear what follows: Back to tip no. 1: Choose a habit and start today, because the best time to do something for your well-being is right now. And who knows – maybe you will look back and realize that these small steps were exactly the start you needed to initiate lasting change.
About the author
Kinga Bartczak advises, coaches and writes on female empowerment, new work culture, organizational development, systemic coaching and personal branding. She is also the managing director of UnternehmerRebellen GmbH and publisher of the FemalExperts magazine .
