As humans, we have certain needs to be met on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. You have your "tier one" needs such as clothing, food, shelter, and water - your "tier two" needs like social interaction, exercise, and sleep/relaxation - and then your "tier three" needs like vacation time or coffee in the morning when waking you up. These different "tiers" represent a rank of necessity, suggesting that your tier one needs must be prioritized over the other two. Now before I get too deep into human psychology and whatnot, I'll segway into my inspiration behind this project...
On Instagram, I follow an Australian fitness blogger named @madelingiorgetta who posts her workout routines, healthy recipes, daily activities, and self-help guides. A few weeks ago, she snapped a photo of a homemade chart she drew claiming that it helped her to better visualize aspects of her life that needed better attention. She created a weekly calendar with a list of things that were important to her; things that she wanted to make sure she did every day to live a healthier, happier lifestyle. Me, being someone who loves making lists and being organized, thought I should give this little project a try too!
To start off, I brainstormed a list of things that I believed people who were genuinely happy did on a daily basis. With that list, I generalized my bullet points into 5 distinct categories: fun, body, school, mind, and social. So for the next seven days, I began to record and sort my every activity (or the ones that actually mattered). Here's what it looked like...
Not only did this little project help me reflect on my week and see it in a visual format, but it showed me my areas of weakness. I know deep down inside that I tend to prioritize work/school and exercise over other human necessities such as mental health and simply just having fun. Literally, one of my "fun" fulfillments was having a movie night. Sad. Now seeing this all laid out, it's pushed me to focus on those areas that I typically put on the back-burner and to let loose on the things I happen to obsess over. As you can see, there wasn't a single day where I fulfilled all of the boxes. It's not that I'm any less happy because of it, but I realized that that specific category needed even greater attention the next day.
As of now, I think I'll continue with this self-care project and I encourage others to give it a try, too. You do not necessarily have to use the same categories as I did (perhaps swap out school for work, etc.), but keeping the number between 4-7 will help you achieve your goals on a manageable level. Best of luck, you've got this!