The longer I work from home, the more I find myself working late into the evening and on weekends, and in order not to burn out, I find myself needing to set my own boundaries more and more. One of the boundaries that I set when I first started working remotely was taking Sundays off. It’s been exactly 2 years since then, and I still have Sundays as my dedicated day off and my day for self-care.
What does a self-care Sunday entail?
No alarm clock!
I find waking up to an alarm clock really unpleasant, but since I’m not naturally an early riser, I have to set an alarm clock on days when I need to be out of bed before 9am. I love Sundays because it is the one day that I allow myself to wake up naturally, and I find it is such a good start to my day.
Quality time with Ryan
Since Ryan also tends to take Sundays off, we usually spend the day together. I’m pretty lucky in that Ryan and I get to spend quite a bit of time together during the week, but Sundays are our time to hangout without worrying about calls, emails or other responsibilities. We usually have breakfast, lunch or brunch together and then do something outside, depending on where we are.
Yoga
Yoga is a part of my daily life and Sunday is no different. Sunday yoga practices are usually at home, and they are usually slow and stretchy practices as I allow myself to fully wind down from the week, and prepare for the week ahead. If my day ends up being too busy for yoga, I spend at least 15-20 minutes stretching before bed.
Exploring
This really depends on where we are, but regardless, we usually try to either cook or go out for a delicious meal and then do something outside. If we’re back home in Canada it might be hiking, and here in Mexico City, it’s been exploring a new part of the city each week!
Something just for me
Part of my self-care ritual is to do something just for me. This might be reading in bed, hanging out with a good friend (or Skyping), taking a long bath, getting a massage or watching a movie. Today’s self-care involved a long Skype call with one of my best friend’s from home, and watching a movie with dinner.
Organizing for the week ahead
One of the things that is key for me to stay on top of all of my tasks is to make sure I am organized. Before I go to bed on Sundays, I always check my daytimer. Mondays tend to set the tone for my week, so I find that if I can go into the week on top of what my week looks like, I will be much more successful. I start by getting a handle on my to-do’s for Monday and making sure that I have an actionable to-do list laid out, and I know what time I need to be up in the morning and ready to start working. Then, I look at my week before and see if I am rolling over anything from the previous week. I add those to my weekly to-do list, before adding any additional tasks and projects to my weekly to-do list.
Meal Prepping
This one doesn’t always happen, but it’s something that I strive for. Ryan and I often do a big grocery shop after we are done exploring or hanging out, and then we’ll head home and prep dinner and food for the week. I find that going into the week with a full fridge and a couple of meals ready to go really sets me up for success. Plus, I love cooking so it’s a fun way to spend the last few hours of my Sunday!
Tidying up
Tidying up isn’t the most fun task, but I find that so much of staying on top of my week is making sure that I have a solid mental landscape. If my physical space is messy, my mental space is usually cluttered too, and I like to spend a bit of time on Sundays getting things organized, whether that is putting away clothes, tidying up dishes, or simply taking out the garbage. Because we mostly live in AirBnb’s and don’t have very much stuff, our tidying up usually doesn’t take very long (thank god).
Go to bed early!
By early, I mean around 11pm. I find that I don’t want Sunday to end so I’ll find reasons to stay up late, but I know that if I go to bed at a decent hour, I’ll start my week feeling nice and fresh!
Now, off to bed. Happy Sunday!