One thing I do effectively is still have my routines for self care, personal development and leisure time. Yes the gym is “my baby” and it’s a significant piece of my life but I have my routines nailed.
How about you?
As summer wraps up, you can probably feel stress levels rising. That means your self care needs to be on point so you can perform at your best.
The Harvest Business Review published an article on down time and here’s what it said:
One study, for example, found that employees who unplugged and took time off reduced serious health issues like coronary heart disease. Victor Lipman has written in Forbes that exercising midday can help to reduce workplace stress. As John has written previously, just six minutes of reading can reduce stress by 68%. John Tierney and Ron Baumeister state in Willpower that midday breaks can rejuvenate willpower and improve judgment and decision making in the afternoon. And as we have written before, cleanly taking time off from work to focus on your spouse, family, or friends can only improve your relationships. Downtime can be essential for mental, physical, and social health.
You can’t be superman or superwoman by always being on. Take time to rest and your productivity, mood and life will improve!
Here are a few things you can do to unplug mentally and rest:
- Time block some downtime into your schedule. If it is scheduled, you’re more likely to follow through.
- Set boundaries for when you are putting away your phone and computer. If you don’t set boundaries, people will continue to push them and reading that nasty e-mail before bed isn’t going to help your sleep time.
- Turn those screens off and instead, listen to some relaxing music, read a book or do something that doesn’t emit blue light (yeah screens do this and can mess with your sleep!).
- Get outside. Nature is good. Summer, fall, winter, spring. Do activities outside and get fresh air.
I’m excited to ramp up for the upcoming fall and finish the year strong. Start creating some downtime in your daily, weekly and monthly schedules as it will go a long way toward improving your health!
What is your favorite way to spend your downtime?
