Author Self-Care blog series
We all hear about how important self-care is that I’m sure we are all familiar with what it is, and that it’s important for us. I’m sure you’re familiar with the phrase “Self-care isn’t selfish”. That is so true. Taking care of yourself, your environment, and your mental health are the best investments you can make in your life.
Self-care is especially important for writers. It’s important to maintain our well-being in our profession. Whether you’re a full-time or part-time writer, you need to take your self-care seriously. As writers, we encounter numerous health challenges, including sedentary work, repetitive movements, eye strain, mental hurdles, and stress.
There are a few key strategies and tips for integrating self-care into your writing routine that will improve your health and reduce stress.
Add a few changes at a time
Invest in the right equipment
Take breaks
Exercise
Smart Choices
Understanding Self-Care for Authors
As creative people, we are sometimes subject to the whims of our muse’. Keeping our creative well full and reducing stress and strain can increase our lives as writers. In any profession, it’s important to take care of your health and safety, but as writers, we face some special challenges.
Whether we write at a cafe, from our living room couch, or an office as writers, we often work a sedentary job. According to the Front Public Health article to the National Library of Medicine, the effect of work-related sedentary time on our health.
“Sedentariness has become one of the largest public health concerns, recognized as one of the main causes of preventable premature mortality.”
So, for this week’s blog we are going to focus on ways to decrease the amount of time you sit and increase your health as writers.
It’s important to realize that you don’t have to go out and buy any expensive equipment. We are going to discuss the minor changes you can make every day to improve your health, along with big changes you can work up to.
Full-time authors
Full-time authors can sit at their workstation for up to a standard eight hours like any other profession. Minus a few breaks that are still a long time to be sitting. We’ve already established that it isn’t good to sit for long periods of time.
I’m a full-time author myself. You can find my morning routine in this blog post to see when I get started every day. I finish my work day around four in the evening. That is a long time to be at my desk. If you would like to catch a glimpse of my office, you can check out my weekly Tea Time videos. The latest playlist is Tea Time with S. A. Crow reading Home Fires.
Starting small
What can you do to about our sedentary job as authors? Here are a few small ideas that can make a big difference.
Set a timer
If you haven’t heard of the pomodoro technique is a time management method created by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s. According to the Todoist article The Pomodoro Technique, the technique consists of setting a timer for a specific amount of time “originally 25 min.” to focus on your work task, then take a 5 min. break before starting another focus timer.
Why and how could this help authors with our sedentary work?
It’s easy as getting up and moving while you are on a break. Yes, simple as that. Stand up, stretch your muscles, get a drink, flip over the laundry, or do a set of dishes. You’d be surprised what you can get done in five minutes.
There are several authors who host what are called writing sprints where they use this technique to help the writing community. Here is a spreadsheet of some of these authors and their live YouTube sprints. You can find me hosting writing sprints on Friday and Saturday morning starting at 9 am Central time on my YouTube channel.
Try using the Forest app to stay focused on your task and reduce phone distractions. Plus, you’ll help plant actual trees with the Trees for the Future organization. When our users spend virtual coins, they earn in Forest on planting actual trees, Forest team donates to our partner and creates planting orders. See our sponsor page here .
Desk Chair Yoga
Verywellfit’s article Performane-Building Yoga Stretches You Can Do at Your Desk gives a few moves that can help you stay healthy and get in some movement. These would be a great addition to do during the above focusing technique.
Neck rolls
Cat-cow stretch
Seated forward bend
Seated eagle
Seated spinal twist
Wrist stretch
Standing pigeon
To name a few. You can also find some YouTube videos with more chair exercises.
These are just a few changes you can make to your writing routine that can help you maintain your health. Look for more articles in this series.
What are some ways that you make your health a priority? Next time we will talk about larger ways to maintain your physical wellness as authors, so we’d love to hear about your tips and tricks.
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