Self Care Is Not About Taking Minutes, Moments, Hours and Days

Despite what we see on Instagram, self-care isn’t just about face masks and massages (although those are nice). It’s about spending your time, including your workday, in ways that prioritize the things and people you care about. Studies show that this kind of self-care makes us happier and more focused in our jobs.

But it can be a challenge to take care of ourselves when we’re on deadline, traveling too much, or reporting to a boss who emails at all hours. We speak with researcher Ashley Whillans about how managers can model healthy habits and how employees can make time to practice them. Ashley shares a personal experience about what happens when we don’t prioritize self-care, while Amy G. gets a firsthand lesson in an airport.

Our HBR reading list:

• “Time for Happiness,” by Ashley Whillans
• “6 Ways to Weave Self-Care into Your Workday,” by Amy Jen Su
• “Use Your Money to Buy Happier Time,” HBR IdeaCast interview with Ashley Whillans
• “What One Company Learned from Forcing Employees to Use Their Vacation Time,” by Neil Pasricha and Shashank Nigam
• “How Self-Care Became So Much Work,” by Charlotte Lieberman

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Email us: womenatwork@hbr.org

Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.