We’re always aiming to be the best version of ourselves and on a Sunday night our plans for the week ahead are full of scheduled in self-care time, ideas of how to succeed in our careers and endless positive vibes.

But then, you know, life gets in the way. Even when we have the best intentions to nail our week ahead, suddenly we can feel a little out of control when pressure intensifies at work or we realise we’ve overbooked our social calendar. It can leave us feel drained, and all of those high hopes we had flutter out of the window. 

But author, graphic designer and speaker Amber Rae has created a genius remedy to this, with an easy-to-follow self-care flow chart. 

Our minds are complex places, and when your thoughts feel scrambled this pretty graphic is designed to help you logically work out what you want from your week and aid you in getting it.

The questions work together, with each one leading into another to help you build a focus for your week. After all, dreaming big is great, but overwhelming ourselves is sometimes counterproductive, which is why Rae’s chart looks at defining core goals for the next seven days.

The chart starts with one key statement: my number one priority this week is…

From there, the chart helps you plan how you will achieve this by thinking about what you want to do less and more of.

Careful not to just deal with the pragmatic side of things, though, it also considers the emotional impact of your goals and reminds you to prioritise your mental health, too.

After deciding on your priorities for the week, the chart challenges you to think about how you want to feel, and how you will ensure that you do feel that way, before ending on a positive mantra to fall back on in case you get stuck. 

Being both a motivational writer and graphic designer, Rae’s Instagram account is full of inspiring messages and self-care tactics, which we love. Her followers can vouch for how useful tools like this flow chart are, with many of them commenting on the post with messages like “this is fantastic! I’m going to try this tomorrow and see how my week goes” and “that’s a good way to stay on track and get ready for the next week. Journaling is great! I typically do mental journaling because that’s better for me”.

She recommends doing this not only alone, but with a “friend, colleague, or team to add depth and accountability.”

Rae is also a fan of journaling, something which can be even more effectively done when in bullet style. This technique of drawing your own diary format onto dotted paper can help soothe anxiety and increase productiveness. 

Incorporate it into answering your self-care flow chart for an even more in-depth way of digesting what you want from the week ahead. 

Images: Kaboom Pics