Cliché self-care tips are actually helpful!
I love self-care! I love reading about new ways to practice self-care and keep making it an active priority in my life. I have noticed that whenever I watch a YouTube video, read articles, or find posts through Instagram and TikTok, there are some common self-care tips that I see repeatedly. While they do end up becoming cliché, I find that they are extremely helpful.
And that’s what this blog post will cover! I will be listing down some of the most cliché self-care tips, and how they worked in my life. This is also part of my “Popular X Tips, What Worked For Me & What Didn’t” series. This post is the third one, the other ones are Popular New Year Habits and Popular Productivity Tips (after you finished reading this one!)
Even though these are about my experiences, I do believe you’ll learn something from them! I find that it’s helpful reading about how someone implements a certain tip into their life, so I’m going to do the same. This blog post is for anyone who wants to keep improving the way they do their self-care (which should be everybody!).
If there are any other popular productivity tips that I missed, feel free to let me know! My comment section is only seen by me, so you can be as open as you’d like!
Now let’s dive in.
1 – Saying No
How it works: This self-care tip relies on you saying no to requests, new commitments, or anything else that may require your mental capacity. The whole idea of this is to put yourself first and say no when you need to say no, not say yes when you actually want to say no.
How it worked for me: This is something that is always a work in progress for me! Before this used to be so hard for me. While it is sometimes tempting to say yes when I want to say no, I am finding that it gets easier and easier. I also feel better about myself because it tells my brain that I’m putting myself first, and I’m not letting my people-pleasing tendencies get to me.
2 – Treat Yourself
How it works: The name is in itself, you treat yourself. Whether that’d be for food, gifts, or doing something you love, it all falls into treating yourself. The whole idea of this is that you reward yourself for doing something, and it’s a way that you show how much you care for yourself.
How it worked for me: I’m careful to not abuse this! I’ll admit that there are times when I would buy something impulsively (like food or a gift for myself) and justify it with “treating myself”. As a result, my finances are not too happy about it. Treating myself is important for rewarding myself in my various commitments such as study, work, and content creation. But I want to make sure that I’m not “treating myself” too much and justifying it.
I guess you can say that it does work for me in terms of motivating myself to get all my tasks done. BUT I need to use it wisely.
3 – Declutter
How it works: This is where you declutter your spaces, clean up your mess, and generally have a tidy environment. As a result, you feel better, and even become more productive as a result.
How it worked for me: Honestly, anytime my environment is neat, it’s so much easier to motivate myself to do things. If it’s a complete mess and I can see clutter everywhere, it’s the other way around. That’s why decluttering is a helpful self-care tip because it’s not just about being a neat freak, it’s also about having a clear mind and space.
4 – Digital Detox
How it works: A digital detox can work in many ways. It goes from the times you don’t use your phone, screen time limits, phone-free hours, and so on. It’s a self-care tip that allows you to step away from your devices (and honestly, mainly your phone) so you can focus on the things that you need to do.
How it worked for me: There has never been a time when I did a digital detox on my phone and felt bad about it. Of all the self-care tips out there, doing a digital detox is one of the hardest ones. This is mainly because during this day and age, our life is all about our digital devices, so it’s hard to stay away from them. But when you do take some time away from them, it does feel good.
This is something I just reminded myself to do more often.
5 – Me-Time
How it works: This is time just to yourself, and not with anyone else. This is where you either do an activity you love or anything where you can just spend time with yourself. It’s time to be in your own company.
How it worked for me: 100000000000000% works for me! I live on my own now so I’m always having time to myself, but when I was living with my family, having me time helped boost my happiness and mental health. I always look forward to doing activities that I love, and whenever I’m on my own, my self-confidence is boosted too. It’s become a part of my daily routine to have time to myself (away from my work/studies/content creation) and just do something I enjoy.
6 – Journal
How it works: This works in many different ways! There are different types of journals such as gratitude journals, happiness journals, anxiety journals, etc. Some journals can just write down your thoughts, ideas, and memories… there’s so much out there. When it comes to journalling, there’s not one size fits all. Everyone would have a journal for a different purpose.
How it worked for me: I’m a big journal collector and I’m always making sure that I finish my journals before I start buying new ones. The main ones I use are my gratitude journal, intention journal, and thoughts journal. They help me be more intentional for the day and reflect on what I could do better each day. When I’m having a day where there’s so much on my mind, using my thoughts journal helps. Then there are certain times with other types of journals that work for me.
7 – Make a tea/coffee
How it works: The name is in itself. This is a common self-care tip that suggests that you have tea/coffee while reading your book, journaling, or just doing something mindful in the journal. This is mainly a self-care activity that allows you to spend time with yourself and have mindful moments.
How it worked for me: I LOVE my mindful coffee moments, it’s a part of my morning routine! Every morning, after drinking water, I make myself a cup of coffee. I drink that coffee while reading and journaling.
8 – Face Mask
How it works: This had to be on this list because it’s the most common self-care tip out there! It’s society’s definition of self-care… just put on a face mask!
How it worked for me: The main reason I use face masks is that it’s part of my skincare routine. But still, I like this self-care activity. When I put my face mask on, I love doing something relaxing that helps me wind down for the night. This may be a cliché self-care tip, but it is relaxing!
9 – Reading
How it works: This is another cliché self-care tip! It’s also a cliché alternative to using your phone. For instance, reading a book is one of the most common alternatives for using your phone when you’re having a digital detox. You can either read fiction or non-fiction books.
How it worked for me: I’m a big reader and I love reading! It’s one of the first things I do in the morning. In terms of books I read, I read both fiction and non-fiction! When I started making reading a regular habit, I only read non-fiction books. Before, non-fiction books were the only books I would read. But it’s only recently (at the start of the year), that I thought I’d read fiction books for fun (on top of the non-fiction books I’m reading). I feel the benefits of reading and love it, so this was a self-care tip that worked so well for me.
10 – Listening to podcasts and music
How it works: Many self-care tips suggest that listening to podcasts is a great way to learn and make the most of your commuting, and music is a great way to pump you up.
How it worked for me: Music is a great way to pump me up for my day! When I need to hype myself up, music is the way to go! However, most of my day involves listening to podcasts because I believe in the power of feeding your brain. I say that daily (mainly on weekdays) 80% are listening to podcasts, and 20% are listening to music. Although that changes every once in a while, depending on how I feel. When I’m not in the mood, then I would mainly listen to music. Or when I don’t feel like listening to music, I might just listen to podcasts all day.
Take a SMALL STEP
I don’t recommend implementing all these self-care tips at once. In this blog, I will always suggest that you start with one, and then build more as you go! However, here are some small steps that you can do to get started with each of these self-care things!
- Saying no – I might actually promote my TikTok and link my video here. To summarize, to make saying no easier, you have to be aware of what you should be saying no to. In this TikTok video, I explain what to be aware of, and how it will help say no easier.
- Treat yourself – Make a list of mini rewards to yourself for every time you complete all your tasks daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Just remember to be mindful of it, and to use it wisely… you don’t want to “treat yourself” so much that it loses its meaning. Check out this Quick Guide of Self-Care Activities for ideas of self-care! You can also check out the Self-Care list in the Free Resources Library.
- Digital Detox – There are many digital habits that you can do (check out the blog post here). A great starting point is to not go on your phone first thing in the morning, and not let it be the last thing you use in the day.
- Declutter – Try the habit of decluttering 5 minutes a day. I just started doing this, and it has been an easier way to keep things tidy every day.
- Me Time – Set aside a minimum of 20 minutes of non-negotiable me-time daily! During your me-time, you can decide what you want to do!
- Journal – Get a journal to get started, or start looking at some journal prompts to do! You can find some journal prompts in my Free Resources Library which you can check out here! There are different prompts you can do that can help you with your personal growth.
- Make a tea/coffee – Or really, any beverage of your choice. Whatever drink you have, take mindful sips and just truly enjoy the drink.
- Face Mask – If you don’t have it in your skincare routine already, go and find a face mask that will work well with your skin type. You can make the most out of a self-care night by putting a face mask on while doing something relaxing and fun.
- Reading – Write down 5 books that you will be reading next (fiction or non-fiction!). If you need a book suggestion, I recommend my book Small Steps to Progression which you can download for free here! The best part is that it’s only a little over 50 pages so it’s a short read (which is great for those who are just making reading a habit).
- Listen to podcasts and music – With podcasts, I suggest looking at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Play to see some podcasts that interest you the most! It doesn’t have to be related to personal growth. It can be any topic that you want to learn from! With music, go and create your go-to listen to the playlist for when you need to hype yourself up!
To Wrap Up
I know this blog post was basically a bunch of cliché self-care tips you’ve seen before! But I truly hope that you benefitted from my discussion of each of them, and how it’s implemented into my life!
If you want to improve the way you do your self-care, I highly suggest reading my mini self-care e-book Small Steps to Self-Care, also in the Free Resources Library! You’ll also find all the other resources that I mentioned earlier! You can sign up to access it here.
In the meantime, I hope you’ve been prioritizing yourself and taking care of yourself! Remember to make yourself one of your top priorities <3
-Lauren 😊
P.S I recommend you read these blog posts next:
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hi, this is Lauren! I’m a law grad from Melbourne, Australia. On laurenbarri.com, I create content on all things personal development, productivity, self-care, and habits! I am super passionate about these topics because of how they helped me in all areas of my life, and I want to share it with others!
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