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How I've added self-care and consistency to my daily routine

For a while now I have valued the following things:

  1. Good physical health
  2. Good mental health
  3. Consistency

But I wasn't doing much to really live those values in my day to day life.

I knew that I wanted to embody those traits, but if I was being honest with myself, I wasn't.

One of the main things I learned from Nir Eyal's book, Indistractible, is that it is important to align your values with the time you spend everyday.

Recently I started a new morning routine:

30 minutes every morning:

  1. 10-12 minutes of yoga
  2. 9-11 minutes of journaling
  3. 8 minutes of meditation

Yoga

Yoga is a great way to start your day by stretching and strengthening your body. I've found that if I don't exercise for 3-4 weeks, my body starts to get a lot of small aches and pains. I mix using videos from Yoga with Adriene and also some basic self-guided routines.

Journaling

If you are like me, then you may not always do a great job processing how you feel. Sometimes I would find myself feeling super stressed out, but not always understanding why. I've been really surprised by how much it benefits me to just sit down and write out what I am thinking or feeling.

Meditation

I suck at meditation, but I keep practicing. One thing that changed my mindset was thinking about it as a practice to better be in control of your mind and thoughts. By practicing trying to clear your mind, you are building muscle to be more intentional with it. For me it has already helped with tempering my stress and emotions, while also helping me mindfully avoid distractions better.

Don't give up!

I quit my job 4 months ago and have been full-time indie hacking ever since. Mental health and consistency have probably been the two things I have struggled with the most. I hope this routine might help some of you overcome some of your own struggles!


If you liked this, consider following me on Twitter: @jstnchu (I tweet about my learnings around starting my own business)

  1. 2

    That's a great list. How long have you been following the routine and how has it impacted your productivity?

    Journaling is definitely an underrated activity and it is extremely helpful in clearing your mind. Thank you for sharing!

    1. 2

      I’ve done each practice individually for a while, but without much consistency.

      I started the routine about a month ago and it has really helped set my days off right. I’ve noticed my mindset and motivation has been a lot better most days.

      The best 2 benefits are:

      • I feel more encouraged and confident in being able to consistently push myself to do things, even if I don’t always feel like it
      • I am more in tune with how I am feeling and the reason why I feel the way I feel. It’s an area I struggled with previously, so I am glad to make progress on it
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