Self-care has been a major focus for me over the last few years. Not just because of the ‘unprecedented times’ we all found ourselves in during 2020, but because I am a type-A recovering burnout champion who loves her work and is wired to overdo it at the first opportunity available.

Like you (probably), I also live in the Western world – one obsessed with Elon Musk, 100 hour weeks and hustle p*rn and I am surrounded by the work-at-all costs rhetoric all day every day. Many of my professional heroes are over-doers as well.

Put that all together and you get a 30-something professional who has no boundaries, absolutely no self care practise and is stuck in a perpetual cycle of burnout and recovery.

When I turned 30, my circumstances changed in such a way that I was left to my own devices and worst impulses. My overdrive went into overdrive.

It took a few more years to realise that I had finally reached my limits, as each period of burnout took longer and longer to recover from and my symptoms escalated to debilitating ocular migraines, nausea and other fun things that landed me in the closest medical practice I could drag myself into.

When the world shut down, I finally had the space and time to focus on caring for myself and building a self-care practise that could sustain me and the high levels of performance I aspired to. This work didn’t start in 2020, but that was when I finally had the time to put it all together and build something robust and steady for myself.

Something I have learned over the years is that managing my self-care and maintaining my mental health is a full time job, and I have to keep an eye on this at all times.

Enter: my self-care tracker.

I often joke that every great piece of art starts it’s life as an Excel spreadsheet, and this is a prime example of that. 

I’m not sure if it’s because I am a data driven enneagram type 5 or what, but when I need to make sense of the world or my thoughts, I turn to Excel.

The image above is a tracker from October of last year when I was in the thick of my big project and exhibition prep.

I need to have one of these on the go at all times to anchor me in the world. I truly feel feel lost without one. It lives on my fridge and my pens and highlighters sit on top, and I cross things off and make notes as I go about my day.

“What gets measured, gets managed” – (Note: This is a loaded quote, so take the useful bits and discard the rest. As David Heinemeier Hanssons ays, ‘Use your judgement and your imagination’).

“Show me your last 1000 days, and I’ll show you why you are exactly where you are in life” – random square I found on Instagram. 

Again, all the usual caveats apply + use your discernment etc etc.

Basically, what you do every day creates your trajectory and your trajectory determines your destination.

Break this up into smaller chunks but don’t stop.

Don’t try and track 400 days in a row otherwise you will feel deflated as the progress will take too long to be visible on the tracker.

You can track in 30, 60, 90 or 100 day cycles. At the moment I’m working to 6 week cycles as I am trying out 37signals’ Shape Up method.

As you can see in the image above, it’s rare for me to get full sweep in any given day, but that doesn’t mean I don't try.

You might find the gaps and crosses a bit deflating, but it's important to remember that the tracker is providing you with information, not an assessment of your worth as a human. If you miss something, it’s not a personal failing or an opening to berate yourself. It’s an invitation to reassess your workload and/or set up. Kapil Gupta says: ‘Don’t ask: How do I? Ask: Why am I not?’ [paraphrased by me for simplicity]’.

The 5 things I track everyday are not the sum total of my self care practise. 
 
I also do yoga every morning. I also walk every single day. I also brush my teeth twice a day and floss. I also drink 2-3 litres of water every day. I meditate every morning. I’ve been at this for 7 years now and I can do these other things without any effort.

Only track the things that you haven’t managed to automate into your schedule and want to make sure you stay on top of. Once it’s committed to your wiring, you can take it off the list and add something else so you can keep growing.

Don’t track too many things. 

I have found that when I track too many things, I lose sight of my priorities and then I don’t do anything. The most I can track, is 5 things.

Here are the 5 things I track:

1. A key work action or project I need to work on every day. (At the moment it is writing 1,000 words a day and working on my Shape Up cycle).

2. A workout.

3. EFT tapping to maintain my emotional wellbeing.

4. Reading (at least 18 minutes).

5. My bedtime (aiming for 9pm but no later than 10pm).

These are the 5 pillars of my self-care practise:

1. Work

2. Exercise

3. Emotional wellbeing

4. Learning

5. Sleep

Obviously, everyone is different, so what you put in those 5 columns might be different to mine. You might be struggling with a different area of your life that needs particular attention too, so your focus will need to be elsewhere.

If you are struggling to do something because you think it takes too long/something in that vein, you can try the 18 minute trick which comes from the 100 hour rule.

I’ll let Jesse Itzler sum it up:

“18 minutes a day. That's all it takes to be better then 95% of the world in any discipline (100 Hour Rule). For example, if you practice the piano for 18 minutes a day for a year…. you'll basically be better then 95% of the world at the piano.”

Consistency is really, really important, and that’s why we need to track what is important to us.

- Linda ✌🏻