The Daily Self-Care Routine of a Freelancer Who Loves To Procrastinate

Throughout the pandemic, there has been a social media rally around self-care.

Take care of yourself.
Invest in your self-care ritual.
Enhance your self-care regimen to take care of yourself.
Find yourself in your self-care.

(I know all of those lines because I’ve had to write all of them for every email marketing campaign I’ve worked on in the past 11 months)

As I’ve increased my self-care regimen, I’ve started to wonder— in a Carrie Bradshaw fashion—how on EARTH am I supposed to stay mindful, glowing, and grounded while investing in my work at the same time? Can one look good and feel good and work 40 hours a week? Jury’s still out!

In fact, I’m finding myself starting to leverage my self-care routine as a procrastination weapon, booking Zoom calls around my face wash routine (which has increased from 7 minutes to 35 minutes). In typical creative fashion, I’ll stop telling and start showing.

This is a day in the life of a spritely freelancer, who really, really wants to be able to focus on work, but she also has to put on hand lotion, which then stalls typing because it would get the keyboard dirty.

MORNING

My morning routine is a true mixture between health-and-wellness and pure, unadulterated avoidance. I won’t run you through it because I honestly tried to type it all out already and found that if I over expose my regimen, people will think it’s a cry for help.

After a multi-step, liquid breakfast routine, I somehow manage to clean dishes, set the ambiance with essential oil diffusers, and commit to a pilates class. At least 10 minutes of the class includes me trying to figure out when it’s my turn to contribute to the morning banter on Zoom. I don’t succeed at the beginning, but I always make sure to bogart the space when we go off mute by saying, “That one was really hard!”

My clients are not allowed, and I repeat, not allowed to book me for meetings any time before 11am.

MID MORNING / EARLY AFTERNOON

Pilates is over, but I couldn’t possibly imagine looking at my computer screen. Okay, you’re right. I’ll warm up my bone broth and worry about what I’ll have for lunch instead.

I spend approximately 45 minutes piecing together a process-over-product-focused lunch that includes many steps, many ingredients, and few bites.

Now is probably a good time to check my email or get on a call, but I usually would prefer to wash my face at this point. I take my computer with me to the bathroom to accompany my face washing routine, but end up checking my Spotify ads over my emails.

I could cut my face regimen short and focus on work, but I bought a microcurrent device to keep my skin taut forever (they tell you you have to do it every day), so I give that a good 10 minutes of focus.

AFTERNOON

It’s 1pm and I’ve just finished adding rosehip oil to my SPF, which means that my face washing routine is FINALLY complete.

I have a call scheduled, so I manage to take it while adding green powder to a tomato-sauce-sized jar filled with water. I spend the majority of the call thinking about how I can challenge myself to drink 90oz of water by the end of the day without feeling like I’m internally drowning.

LATE AFTERNOON

Okay, it’s 4pm and I don’t remember the last three hours, but I am pretty sure that one call exhausted me. I tell my mom that I’m going to take a break I greatly deserve by making a green juice (yes, another liquid).

It takes me at least 20 minutes to prepare, produce, and clean everything to make my juice supply.

I look at my computer while wearing blue light glasses. My computer has a blue light screen protector and a blue light app, so I now can barely even see my screen because of all of the blue light armor, which has essentially made my screen completely black.

My eyes get tired of trying to see my screen, so I decide I’ll check my Slack notifications later and go for a walk or bike ride instead.

EARLY EVENING

My mom, whom I live with (!), is making dinner. “I’ll do work while you prepare dinner,” I promise her (and myself?), but find myself in an infrared sauna blanket on my bed, watching Netflix’s Bling Empire.

LATE EVENING

I’ve had dinner while watching 1000lb Sisters on TLC even though my mom wanted to watch the news instead (win!). I really, really have to do work and check my Asana tasks, but Bravo’s COVID-edition of Summer House is on tonight, and I really want to focus on Hannah and Luke’s tumultuous relationship.

I decide to bring my computer into the den, where I’m able to look at my Asana tasks. I get anxious, so I choose to foam roll for approximately 16 minutes.

Ugh. It’s 10pm and I’m so tired, but I have to write email copy.

Then I remember that my health-and-wellness community says a good night’s sleep helps you do better work, so I indulge in an hour-long bathing routine with the hopes that I’ll have more energy to do my work tomorrow.

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