Daily Self-Care Checklist

People often think about wellness in terms of physical health – nutrition, exercise, weight management, etc. But wellness means so much more! Wellness is a holistic integration of physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. It is about fuelling the body, engaging the mind, and nurturing your spirit.

Our Daily Self-Care Checklist has been created for you to live more fully on a day-to-day basis. This checklist will keep you on track by assessing your wellbeing day-to-day and guiding you to keep improving.

Wellness/well-being/self-care uses 8 mutually interdependent dimensions: Physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, vocational, financial, and environmental. Time must be spent on each one of these dimensions. Neglecting of one will, over time, adversely affect others and ultimately one’s health, well-being, and life quality.

Use this checklist as a guide for the types of activities and daily habits you should incorporate to live more fully, to be healthier, happier, and more productive.

In this checklist, you will be provided with a set of specialized questions designed to be populated with your specific data. Once a task has been completed, check it off and move forward.

This checklist is designed to be used in conjunction with our Morning Routine checklist, our Evening Routine Checklist, and our Annual Self-Care Planner.  As such, you can edit this checklist to suit your needs.

Start by recording today’s date using the date form field provided.

In this Daily Self-Care Checklist, you will be presented with the following form fields which you are required to populate with your specific data. For more information on each form field, go to our help page.

• Long Text
• Date
• Short Text
• Dropdown

Learn how to use this checklist

This checklist has been designed to be used on a daily basis. Obviously, it is not possible to keep jumping in and out of this checklist throughout your day. Therefore, start by following a morning routine, then,  put the checklist away.

Consult the checklist again in the evening, to reflect on your daily activities and how they aligned with the 8 dimensions of wellness. Use this reflection to better understand the type of daily habits you can incorporate to improve your daily wellness.

Start your day by following a morning routine, such as our Morning Routine Checklist.

Note down your thoughts and feelings this morning using the long-text form field provided.

What are your goals today? How will you make your day great? Use the long-text form field provided.

The last thing you want to be worrying about during the day is whether you’re managing to tick all of your wellness targets.

For one thing, it’s not reasonable to pile everything on at once or to expect that you’ll be doing everything straight away (or even at all). It’s also important to have a baseline from which you can measure your progress in improving your wellness as the days go by.

If this is the first time you’re running this Daily Self-Care Checklist, go through your day as per usual and then note what you’ve done in the following wellness assessment tasks.

If you’re running this checklist otherwise, use what you learned you could be improving on from your previous wellness report to get more done today, then compare the results.

Once you’ve finished work for the day (if you’re not working today these tasks should be done later in the afternoon) it’s time to get started with your wellness assessment.

Physical well-being is about respecting your body, listening to its needs, and giving yourself that push needed to grow.

Mark the sub-tasks below according to what you’ve done today to improve your physical wellness:

What did you do today for your physical wellbeing? Use the long-text form field to note this down.

Now it’s time to see how your intellectual wellbeing is doing.

Intellectual well-being is all about improving your mental and creative side. It is achieving a mental balance so you are more productive. Below are some intellectually-boosting activities you can incorporate in your life.

What did you do today for your intellectual wellbeing? Use the long-text form field to note this down.

Next you need to do the same for assessing your vocational wellness.

Vocational wellness is being involved in work that is personally satisfying and life-enriching, aligning with your goals, values, and lifestyle consistently.

Work creates meaning and gives you an applicable avenue to focus your intellect and make a difference.

Think about your career/educational goals, and use the long-text form field below to document these goals.

Think about every-day tasks you can complete which will help you achieve your vocational goals.

Note these down using the long-text form field below.

Did you set aside time to focus on your career goals?

Finally, use the long-text form field below to note what activities you did today to work towards your vocational goals and wellness.

It’s time to turn your attention to your emotional wellness

Being emotionally drained can manifest in many forms such as a lack of concentration, focus, crying, a lack of motivation, and through alternative emotions like fear, shame, and jealousy.

First off,  make sure you are dealing with negative thoughts and emotions healthily.

If you have any worries, negative thoughts, or anxieties, make sure to spend time to healthily deal with these.

Refer to our Lisa A. Romano: Overcoming Negative Self-Talk checklist to help you here. Also, consider talking to a friend or a therapist.

Meditation is a great way to look after your emotional well-being. For best results, it is suggested that you meditate for 30 minutes every day. But shorter practices can also be beneficial. The beneficial impacts of meditation have been recorded in as little as 8 weeks.

Music has many therapeutic benefits, improving mood, life quality, strengthening coping skills, encouraging emotional expression, and relieving stress and anxiety.

Ask for help if you need it – this is very important. No matter what you are going through, speaking up and asking for help has changed many people’s lives!

You don’t have to be religious to maintain spiritual wellness, and that’s exactly what you need to examine now.

The term spiritual is about understanding yourself and what is important to you. 

Humans evolved in nature and therefore our brains and bodies have adapted to be in sync with the natural world. So much so, that what we see, hear, and experience in a given moment impacts our nervous, endocrine, and immune systems.

The stress of an unpleasant environment can induce feelings of anger, stress, and sadness. Being in nature also enhances physical wellbeing, reducing blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones.

You could also look into buying a pot plant for your desk. Having an indoor plant has been found to improve productivity and concentration.

Take a break from your electronic devices.

Technology has taken a major part in our lives. However, consider taking time out in your day to take a break to re-connect.

Assess your social wellness in the same way you’ve already done for the other categories.

Social wellness refers to the relationships we have and how we interact with others. These relationships can offer us support during difficult times.

Social wellness involves building healthy, nurturing, and supportive relationships as well as fostering a genuine connection with those around you.

Think about incorporating daily habits that respect your surroundings and recognize your responsibility to keep our planet healthy.

We are in an environmental crisis that urgently needs to be addressed. Such as crisis is a risk to our current way of life, and therefore, doing your bit to live more sustainability is of paramount importance for the long-term wellbeing of yourself and many others.

Below are some everyday tips you can use to live a more sustainable lifestyle:

• Use reusable bags at the supermarket
• Walk or bike when possible
• Reduce water use
• Use energy-efficient appliances
• Eat less meat
• Buy less
• Re-use
• Be conscious of how much you fly, with an aim to fly less
• Support sustainable initiatives
• Buy environmentally friendlier products where possible

Last but not least, you should be aware of your financial wellbeing from the day.

No one wants money worries. Simple habits in your day will allow you to take control of your finances and improve your financial wellbeing.

Financial wellness includes our relationship with money, skills to manage resources to live within our means, making informed financial decisions and investments, setting realistic goals, and preparing for short-term and long-term financial obligations.

You can use Process Streets Budget Template and Daily Budget Template to help you set and reach your financial goals.

Click here to access Process Street’s Budget Template

Click here to access Process Street’s Daily Budget Template

Finish your day by following a relacing evening routine, such as our Evening Routine Checklist.

Note down your thoughts and feelings this evening using the long-text form field provided.

Based on your evaluation of today’s 8 dimensions of wellness, how could you have made your day even better? What would you do differently tomorrow?

See the information from today’s checklist below (it’ll save you going back through this checklist):

Morning thoughts: {{form.Morning_thoughts}}

Physical wellness notes: {{form.Physical_wellness_notes}}

Intellectual wellness notes: {{form.Intellectual_wellness_notes}}

Career/educational goals: {{form.Career/educational_goals_2}}

Activities towards vocational goals: {{form.Activities_towards_vocational_goals}}

Vocational wellness notes: {{form.Vocational_wellness_notes}}

Emotional wellness notes: {{form.Emotional_wellness_notes}}

Spiritual wellness notes: {{form.Spiritual_wellness_notes}}

Social wellness notes: {{form.Social_wellness_notes}}

Environmental wellness notes: {{form.Environmental_wellness_notes}}

Financial wellness notes: {{form.Financial_wellness_notes}}

Use the long-text form field to note down your thoughts on how to do better tomorrow.

Remember; this isn’t something you can (or should) master overnight. It doesn’t matter so much where you are right now, but more that you do your best to improve come tomorrow.

It won’t always be easy, and you might slip back into bad habits, but if you can keep trying to do better you’ll find yourself capable of working wonders.

• Debbie Stoewen – Dimensions of wellness: Change your habits, change your life
• Big Think – How reading rewires your brain for higher intelligence and empathy
•  Huffington Post – 30 Minutes Of Daily Meditation Can Stave Off Anxiety And Depression
• Very Well Mind – The Benefits of Music Therapy
• The University of Minnesota – How Does Nature Impact Our Wellbeing?
• Better – Why Indoor Plants MakeYour Feel Better
• Well and Good – How to Create a Realistic Self-Care Checklist You’ll Actually Stick To
• Learning to Be Free – Daily Self-Care Checklist: Self-Care Made Easy
• Pinterest – Weekly Self-Care Checklist
• Optimum Performance Institute – 7 Ways to Successfully Cultivate Social Wellness for Life
• Illinois State University – Eight simple steps to increase your intellectual wellness
• Venderbilt University – Elements of Wellness
• SOAS University of London – The Earth System and its Components
• Process Street – Systemic Risk Explained, How to Measure and Identify Systemic Risk Items
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• Big Fiver Personality Test (Structure Template)
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• Budget Template
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• Lisa A. Romano: Overcoming Negative Self-Talk checklist
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• Work Anxiety Resolution Checklist
• The KonMari Checklist
• Morning Routine Checklist
• Evening Routine Checklist
• Annual Self Care Planner