37. Start With You: How Prioritizing Self-Care First Sets the Tone for Your Day

Feeling overwhelmed, scattered, or like there’s never enough time for you? In this episode of The Nurses' Breakroom with Jenny Lytle, RN, Jenny shares practical self-care strategies to help busy caregivers and nurses reclaim time and energy—without guilt.

Discover the importance of proactively scheduling your “yellow” time—those uplifting, energizing moments that fuel your body, mind, and spirit. Learn why front-loading your day with meaningful, joy-filled routines can make a massive difference in your mood, productivity, and overall wellness.

💛 Whether it’s five minutes of journaling, stretching, or enjoying a peaceful cup of tea—these micro moments matter.

✅ Takeaways & Action Steps

• Color-code your calendar to reflect your self-care time
• Start your day with habits that nourish you (even tiny ones)
• Schedule what's most important to YOU—before your day fills up
• Remember: if it’s not on the calendar, it’s easy to let it slide
• Morning routines don’t need to be long—just intentional

If you're feeling overwhelmed, burned out, or like there’s never enough time, I’ve got something just for you! Head to https://selfcareisntselfish.com to grab your FREE copy of my book, Self-Care Isn’t Selfish: The Compassionate Nurse’s Step-by-Step Guide to Personalized Stress Relief. It’s packed with simple, effective strategies to help you prioritize your needs—without guilt—so you can feel energized, focused, and ready to take on the day. Go to https://selfcareisntselfish.com 

Looking for connection with people who get the stress and self-care struggles of nurses and caregivers? Check out https://thenursesbreakroom.com

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennylytlern/

More ways to connect here: https://linktr.ee/jennylytle

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome Back & Priority Review
• 1:59 Yellow Calendar System Explained
• 3:29 Morning Ritual Breakdown
• 6:06 Early Day vs Late Day Self-Care
• 7:15 Final Thoughts & Closing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:29

Welcome back to another episode of the Nurse's Break Room with Jenny Lytle RN. Last week we talked about prioritizing and did the little rocks versus big rocks versus sand exercise to show where our priorities lie, and one of the ways to make sure that we're making time for the things that are most important to us is to schedule that stuff into our calendar first. It can be so easy to focus on the things that we have to do, the appointments we have, the things that we're doing for other people, but having time for ourselves and for the things that are priorities in our lives is a great way to make sure that we're really focused on what matters most to us and what brings us peace and joy and just makes life good. And it doesn't have to be big chunks of time, necessarily, but it can be those little things that really do make a difference. So I like to schedule in my personal time my things that I know lift my spirit, that make me a better version of me. I schedule them in yellow on my Google Calendar. I use a paper planner for like day-to-day very specific kind of things, different projects and things that I'm working on, but as far as blocking out time where nobody else can schedule that with me, then I like to do that in my Google Calendar and my family is able to see that as well, and it just lets me know when I don't have very much yellow. Because I use that and you may have heard me talk about I use that because it's my best version of me time and yellow is like sunshine, and it also reminds me of bananas, which is the bee and it's that roundabout way. But when I see that yellow stuff, I know that I'm doing what I need to do to take care of myself, and so for me, that may be things like massages or going for a hike maybe a little bit longer of a hike somewhere, or getting together with friends or having specific family time that I'm spending with, with people one-on-one or in a group.

Speaker 1: 3:00

But in addition to those things, there are certain things that I like to do more often, little micro moments that I have to focus on, the things that I know make my life better, make me better, and, for instance, getting up and starting my morning with I get my coffee ready and I get green tea ready, and so I have half a cup of coffee, because it just doesn't sit with me as well as it used to anymore, and so I do half a cup of coffee and then I drink green tea and I make a cup of that and then later I switch to decaf green tea, and so I do that along with my water and I do some morning getting ready kind of things, and then when I come downstairs to my office I start off with doing my devotionals, because I know that's something that starts my day focused on God, which is important to me, and I want to set the tone for my day and doing that, and while I'm doing that as well, then I also journal as I'm going through that and anything that pops up that really speaks to me, then I will journal that, and sometimes it's directly related to what I've read, and other times it's something that comes to me as I'm reading that or as I'm sitting there. And I also have a couple of devotional type books that aren't necessarily devotionals but they're short daily reads and I do those encouraging readings as well. And then I have been jumping into work. But what I've realized is that when I do that and when I think, okay, you know what I'm going to do some loving movement, some kind of exercise, stretching, things like that. I'm going to do that and I'm going to do it later in the day.

Speaker 1: 5:01

Then what often happens is I get busy or I get tired, or I get sidetracked, I get pulled in another direction, and so what I'm starting to try to do more often is to have those things planned at the beginning of my day, those things that are the most important to me, the things that I know help me show up better for others and for myself, that help make me feel better mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally and get those in closer to the beginning of the day.

Speaker 1: 5:37

Because when we try to do that later on at the end of the day, then so many other things can pop up and crowd that out and it ends up feeling like it's not a priority, when really it should be our ultimate priority, because those are the things that keep us healthy, keep us strong, keep us in a positive mind frame where we're able to continue to do the things that we're doing for other people as well.

Speaker 1: 6:06

So I just I'm curious as to how that sits with you and how you do that, and if maybe you could consider picking a thing or two that you know you feel better when you do and plug that in at the beginning of your day and that may look different depending on what your schedule looks like. It doesn't have to be first thing in the morning, but getting that in at the beginning of your day and that may look different depending on what your schedule looks like. It doesn't have to be first thing in the morning, but getting that in earlier in the day rather than later, is a great way to be much more likely to actually get it done and do those things that take care of you. Until next time, remember that self-care isn't selfish. It's essential if we wanna continue to care for others and live our best lives. Have a great week.