How do I look after myself when I am busy?
The three things worth protecting when everything else has to give, and why the elaborate version fails.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 15 min
- Read
- 2 min
- Safety
- caution
Short answer
Protect sleep, food and getting outside. When time is short, these three carry the most and everything else can wait — and any routine that needs an hour will be the first thing abandoned.
Self-care advice usually assumes spare time, which is precisely what is missing. What survives a genuinely busy period is a very short list, and being clear about it in advance means the right things get protected.
Safety
Step by step
- Protect sleep before anything else.Everything is harder on insufficient sleep, and the temptation to take the time from sleep is strongest when busy. This is the one to defend.
- Eat properly, even simply.Not elaborately. Something with protein and vegetables, however plain. Skipping meals and living on snacks makes a hard week considerably harder.
- Get outside once a day.Ten minutes. Daylight, movement and a change of scene at once. The highest return for the least time of anything available.
- Keep one thing that is yours.One small thing you do for no reason other than that you like it. A busy period in which everything is obligation is what turns into burnout.
- Lower the standard deliberately.Simpler meals, less tidying, fewer commitments. Deciding what to let slip is far better than trying to maintain everything and failing at random.
- Say no to what you can.The most effective and least practised. Not everything that is asked has to be agreed to, and a busy period is when that matters most.
- Ask for help specifically."Could you do the shopping this week" rather than "I'm struggling". Specific requests are far easier for people to act on.
- Notice when it stops being temporary.A busy fortnight is manageable. A busy year is a different thing, and it is worth recognising the difference rather than waiting it out indefinitely.
Tips
- Batch cook when you have a good day. Food in the freezer is the most practical self-care there is for a bad week.
- The elaborate self-care routines are usually the first thing dropped. A short list you will actually keep beats an ideal one you will not.
- If you can only do one thing, sleep. It affects everything else more than anything else does.
Questions people ask
What should I prioritise when I have no time?
Sleep, eating properly and getting outside once a day. Those three carry the most, and anything requiring an hour will be abandoned first.
When is being busy a problem rather than a phase?
When it stops being temporary. Persistent exhaustion or feeling unable to cope is worth talking to a doctor about rather than organising around indefinitely.