Build a self-care routine in three small steps

Step one: pick three small things. Choose things you'd do anyway, or nearly. Tea counts.

Step two: tie them to something that already happens. After you brush your teeth. When you put the kettle on. When you get home.

Step three: when you skip a day, carry on the next day. You don't need to start again, because you never stopped. If a thing keeps getting skipped, swap it.

The five-minute one

1. 1. Drink a glass of water.
2. 2. Do three slow breaths.
3. 3. Write one line about how you are.

The one for a hard day

4. 4. Eat something, anything.
5. 5. Wash your face.
6. 6. Text one person, even just a word.

The no-screens one

7. 7. Leave your phone in another room.
8. 8. Make a hot drink and sit down with it.
9. 9. Read a few pages.

The outside one

10. 10. Step out of the door.
11. 11. Walk to the end of the road.
12. 12. Look up at something on the way back.

The body one

13. 13. Roll your shoulders.
14. 14. Stretch your neck, one side then the other.
15. 15. Reach up, then touch your knees.

The clear-your-head one

16. 16. Write down everything you're thinking about.
17. 17. Circle the one thing that matters.
18. 18. Close the notebook.

Each one takes about ten minutes or less.

• Self-care goalsone small goal to keep around
• Desk stretchesthe body one, with a timer
• Self-care ideas60 more to swap in