We see the term self-care thrown around all the time. Whenever somebody is in a stressful situation, we often ask if they are practicing self-care. But, when we think about it, what does self-care really mean? And how the hell are we supposed to practice self-care when we are busy 24/ 7.

One thing that I have noticed for myself is that when I get distracted while I'm working it can often add time or even double the amount of time my work would have taken. Obviously, no one can be 100% focused for hours and hours but when you are distractedly working, you are most likely not fully relaxed nor getting fully focused. So then you are left in a place where you didn't get as much work done as you had hoped and now you don't have time to relax. I've been there PLENTY of times. With all of that in mind, one tip maximize relaxation time is to set dedicated study time, at least for the bigger projects/tests so that you can spend more time relaxing or lightly working with your friends.

Listen, I get it, most of us are super busy. Sometimes I am out of my room from 9-9 and it's hard to find time for yourself. I used to be of the mindset that I only have 5/10 minutes, what can I do? I've discovered that even 5-10 minutes of self-care can make your day exponentially better. For example, if you only have 10 minutes you can put on some calming music and just do some stretches to start your day or for a mid-day pick me up. Maybe there's an article you've wanted to read- well, that's the time. It also helps to relaize how many minutes youre losing by spending longer on your phone than you meant to. I know that sometimes I mean to check one or two things end up spending 15 minutes on social media. Similarly to the work point, that time wasn't really relaxing but if you can have the willpower through the rest of the day and use those 15 minutes for self-care, you will probably have a little bit more time for self-care.

The last point about relaxing that have noticed isthat I enjoy my relaxation/ time I spend not working SO much more when I have specifically set time in the day aside for that. When I get a lot of things done and then set time for just scrolling through social media while wearing a facemask, that time is SO much more relaxing than when I get sucked into the 5th youtube video while I should be studying.

School and life can be stressful, be kind to yoursellf.