Life and Learning Archives - Page 8 of 9

Start and End Your Day with A Little Self Care

Like any new habit, adding self-care into your life can seem kind of tricky. You probably wonder how you will be able to find time to do anything extra for yourself, let alone how you are going to remember to do these things. One of the best ways to get started is to build your activities into predictable parts of your day. In order to make something a habit, it needs to happen regularly. So let’s take a look at some ways of making self-care a routine part of your life.

Make It Personal

The first thing that will help you in creating your self-care rituals is to choose activities that are meaningful to you and that you enjoy. This is your practice, so you want to be sure it’s customized in order to get the most out of it. Consider making a list of things that help you to feel relaxed, peaceful, excited or happy. These activities should be able to be done in a short amount of time and easily fit into your life without special equipment or tools. At least as you begin your practice, the things you choose to do should be as simple as possible.

Fit It In

You should add your self-care rituals to the most convenient parts of your day. Choose times that are already somewhat flexible so that incorporating something new into that space will be less stressful. Many people go with morning or evening routines, right when they wake up and before going to sleep each night.

Getting up fifteen minutes earlier than usual and setting aside a window during the usual night-time schedule are usually things most folks can do. However, maybe designating your daily lunch break as your self-care time might work better for you.

Consider activities like writing a gratitude journal entry before bed, listening to music while having your morning coffee or going for a short walk over your lunch hour. Trial and error may be required, but find a moment to call your own every day.

Be Flexible

It’s best to come up with a routine that works for you and stick to it. Committing to a particular schedule will help you to create a habit and ensures that you get the self-care you need. However, try to cut yourself some slack. Some days are more hectic than others. You may not be able to fit in your anticipated self-care activity, and that’s okay. Tomorrow is a new day, and you can try again. Soon, you’ll find yourself wanting to take part in these rituals and getting back on track will be easy.

Getting into the practice of regular self-care doesn’t have to be difficult. Making a few adjustments to your existing schedule can free up some space in your day. Choose things that will refresh you and that are simple in nature will make getting started a breeze.

Why Self-Care Matters

You may have heard the term “self-care” used a lot lately. It’s become a popular buzzword in the media and in personal development circles. However, you still may be unclear on what it means. While the concept does involve taking care of yourself, it actually goes much deeper.

About Self-Care

Self-care covers a lot of areas with regard to caring for yourself. It involves nurturing your body, mind and spirit. It focuses on building yourself up so that your internal resources don’t become depleted. Essentially, self-care is being as good to yourself as you would be to someone you care about.

It requires you to show yourself some compassion and encourages you to be vulnerable with others, asking for help you when you need it. What doesn’t fall under the umbrella of self-care are self-destructive coping mechanisms such as using drugs, drinking, gambling or retail therapy. These things only make you feel good in the short-term.

The Benefits of Self-Care

There are lots of benefits to practicing self-care. Embracing this concept can be difficult for those who’ve always placed emphasis on the welfare of others. However, giving all your energy to those around you without filling your own back up leaves you depleted and empty. That’s no way to live.

Instead, spending time and effort on yourself rejuvenates and energizes you. Taking time to indulge in your own interests demonstrates your worth, leading to improved self-esteem and a more positive outlook on the world. It teaches you a lot about yourself and provides you with insight into what you need to be the best version of yourself. Self-care helps you better cope with stress and to prioritise what’s important to you. You’ll be better able to take care of others when you also take time to meet your own needs.

Examples of Self-Care

There are countless ways to add self-care into your routine. The key is to choose activities that are most enjoyable to you and provide you with the most benefits. Going for a walk in nature is great for those who enjoy the outdoors. Other forms of exercise like yoga, running or going to the gym work well, too.

Spending time with friends can be rejuvenating, but so can saying no. Allowing yourself to decline invitations or favours when you’re feeling run-down is a big part of caring for yourself. Treating yourself to a favourite, affordable indulgence like a movie, manicure or ice cream cone are all good examples. As is taking a bath or meditating. These are just a few of the ways you can easily incorporate self-care into your life.

Now you know what self-care is and what it’s important. You’ve also got some ideas of how to get started, so you’re well on your way to adding this useful practice to your life.

It’s Common Courtesy

We often read as Job Seekers attending an interview that we should write and thank the organisation/interviewers for their time and confirm that we are still interested in the role.

How about it also working the other way round?

This week having attended an interview I received an email later the same day which thanked me for attending, confirmed the details we had discussed in terms of when the outcome would be communicated and wished me a pleasant evening/weekend.

That was a first in my experience but has left me with an incredibly positive impression of the organisation and interviewers.

Whether I secure the role or not they have won a fan (and probably a customer) for a great Candidate Experience!

I was impressed! What about you?

Thanks for the Interview Invite!

Great! I have received your invitation to attend an interview and it arrived in good time. What happens next?

I replied acknowledging receipt and confirming that I will be delighted to attend. I have a couple of questions ahead of the interview and because the invite came from a person rather than a donotreply@ email address I can contact you. You reply to me very quickly with the answers to my questions and apologise for omitting those basic details from the invite. You make a note of the things I have asked about because you can add them to future invites and avoid others having to ask the same questions.
On the day of the interview I arrive in good time and the person on your reception is expecting me and welcomes me in a friendly manner. They know who you are and how to contact you so they let you know. They also ask me if I need to use the facilities and whether I would like a hot drink. I make use of the facilities to freshen up and politely decline the hot drink because I don’t want to spill anything!
A few minutes before the interview is due to start you come and collect me from reception. We make small talk on the way to the interview room and you also point out any interesting things along the way – like where I might find myself working if I am successful at interview. It’s obvious that it’s a friendly place to work because people speak as we walk along and even hold the door open for us.
When we arrive in the room the other members of the panel all get up and introduce themselves. Of course they are not hindered by their mobile phones and are not checking their email because they have already put them away or put them into “flight mode.”
Everything is already set up for the presentation which is great because I don’t need to work out how the various pieces of your kit work together. We start with the presentation, once you have offered me a glass of water which of course I gratefully accept and can place within easy reach.
Even though you have seen similar presentations, because you have been interviewing all day, you maintain an interested look and even if you are starting to tire you avoid yawning! I am grateful for that and reach the end of my presentation and answer the questions which you have around one of the points I had made.
Then we move onto the interview questions. Actually, it was much more a discussion about my experience, my thoughts on some of the key challenges/issues in my area of work and what I would bring to the role. That was so much better than us working through your list of competence questions which I then had to select one answer to from my memory bank of STAR (Situation, Task, Actions, Results) responses. You knew that the Question Tennis approach was old hat and recognised that a two sided discussion was much more useful. What was also great was that because we had a discussion rather than competence questions you didn’t find yourself having to say “Ah you have already answered this with one of your previous responses.”
There had been lots of opportunities for me to ask questions during our discussion so we didn’t then have to have that laboured “Any questions from you?” But I did have a couple of remaining questions and you very graciously answered them without making me feel rushed. Of course it helped that we didn’t have to go through all those HR type questions about Notice Period etc. because they had all been covered at application stage.
As we came to the end it was really clear to see that you had planned the whole process because you were able to tell me exactly what was going to happen next and by when.
You then walked me back to reception and as we chatted along the way you avoided the inane questions about the weather. You shook hands with me as we parted and your friendly reception team signed me out.
So now I just need to wait for the date you had given me for the outcome. What a really pleasant email I found waiting for me after I had driven home. You thanked me for attending, confirmed the details we had discussed in terms of the outcome and wished me a pleasant evening/weekend. I of course responded thanking you for your time etc.

That was a great interview in fact probably the Perfect Interview. Will it continue into the outcome stage to ensure that I really do have a great Candidate Experience? That will be covered in my next post!

If you want to read the previous two posts looking at What I want from Recruitment (as a candidate) then you can find them here:

Do You Want Me as a Fan?

This is the second in a series of short posts looking at What I (a candidate) want from Recruitment. In the previous post (which you can read here) I suggested that there were some simple things that would make life better not only for the candidate but also the employer.

Those simple things were around including details of the overall process in your advertisement. Now let’s move on to the stage where I have applied for the role. What do I want?

The CIPD (the organisation that sets the professional standards for HR) suggest that when it comes to applicants the following should be a rule of thumb:

” Prompt acknowledgement of an application – whether successful or unsuccessful – is good practice and presents a positive image of the organisation. “

In many ways there isn’t much to add there but let me just expand a little on the various aspects of what the CIPD recommend:

As a candidate I want to know that you have received my application
If I am not going to be invited to interview then I do want to know even if it’s just a short (personalised) rejection email. You want to leave me with a positive impression of your organisation don’t you?
Don’t do what one large organisation did recently to me and reject me within less than 5 minutes
1. Telling me that they had “carefully reviewed my CV against the criteria for the role.”
2. What was really obvious from having worked with various types of ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) was that they had set it to reject anyone who had put a previous or expected salary higher than they were prepared to pay – of course they had not advertised the salary!
3. What a waste of time it was for me to have applied and was I left as a fan, advocate or ambassador for the organisation? I think you can probably guess the answer!
If I am going to be invited to interview and you want me to do a presentation then please include the details. These should include the instructions for either getting the presentation to you or whether I can bring it with me on a Pen Drive. That saves a lot of unnecessary emails clarifying the details.

In the next post I will look at the Interview Experience from the Candidate’s perspective.

Have you had any experiences having applied for a role where the organisation could do better and what could they do better?