Simple Ways to be Intentional and Prepared
Decisions to help you feel good
Decisions to help you feel good
Lately, I’ve been exploring new avenues for self-care: this looks like keeping promises to myself, showing up for myself in simple ways and completing tasks that I ultimately know to be beneficial even if they’re time-consuming— and especially when they’re not. Anyone else put tasks off for six months and then come to find out they only take ten minutes to complete?
Some of these decisions may seem like no-brainers, but over the last year I’ve found them to be instrumental in checking in with myself and quite simply: feeling good.
01. Self Check-Ins
Check in with your goals at the beginning of each month and adjust each week to see where you need to improve and what you need to accomplish. I check in with myself every Monday and make sure that I’m not missing any plans in my calendar, touch base on deadlines and go through my check-lists and see what I can mark as done. Having a solid organizational system has become vital to me, being self-employed. On a larger scale, I like to write out a large list of goals, dreams and ideas at the beginning of each year and then check in with those goals on a monthly and weekly basis as well. Whether I’m focused on saving money, traveling to a specific place, or spending more time meditating, I rarely find myself on a consistent path to success without regularly checking in.
02. Expense Tracking
Make a monthly expense and income report at the end of each month to better track your spending and manage expectations. I like to do this to see what I should be saving and how much I can get away with spending recreationally. Quickbooks Self-Employed has been especially helpful to me in managing income and expenses the last five years.
03. Rituals
Wind down each evening with a cup of tea or a candle; find a ritual that prepares you for restful sleep. I’m still working on this one, personally, but I’m experimenting with various forms of rituals and intention-setting every morning and evening as an active way of caring about my days ahead.
04. Take care of your belongings
Take your jewelry off before you shower and go to bed. Taking care of your belongings and actively choosing to help them last longer will save you time, money and energy in the long run. For years, when I was younger, I never saw the draw to taking off all of my jewelry if I was just going to wear it all the next day. After enough mornings of waking up with jewelry indents in my neck and swollen fingers from falling asleep with rings on, I took note of this and decided to make a simple change. All of my jewelry was also starting to fall apart after wearing pieces in the shower and storing in the steamy-temperature-changing bathroom, so I take that off prior to a shower and store it in my closet. Pro tip — do this with your perfumes, too. They’ll last the longest when regulated to one temperature.
I hope that you’re able to implement some of these ideas into your routine, and that you find yourself more mindful and prepared.
Disclosure: I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you if you decide to buy any of the products I refer to and promote. All opinions are my own.