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100+ self-care activities: recharging from work in 2023

Written by Preston Wickersham
Apr 25, 2024
Preston Wickersham

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It’s easier than ever to sacrifice our mental and physical well-being.

We now know that working from home brings rewards and challenges. Zoom fatigue, always feeling “on,” and blurring the lines between work and personal life are factors many of us must navigate.

Of course, those working in hybrid or in-office positions have challenges, too, including the daily commute, interpersonal tensions, and often working too many hours. 

That’s why incorporating self-care activities into our daily and weekly schedules is so important. 

At Remote, we make self-care a part of our work culture since it empowers our teams to do and be their best.

Jump straight to a key chapter

We want the same for you. 

Read on as we cover the very best in self-care tips and activities. 

What is self-care?

Self-care is often mistaken for certain products, like bath salts, or services, like massages. And while those can be relevant, self-care is greater than any marketing ploy. 

Put simply, self-care is taking action for your own well-being. It’s a way of taking care of your life. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines self-care as follows: 

“The ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider.”

They go on to include the following components in self-care: 

  • Hygiene

  • Nutrition

  • Lifestyle

  • Social habits

In other words, self-care covers several aspects of your life, not just downtime. It includes lifestyle habits as well as taking time to relax and focus on your needs.

Why is self-care so important for remote teams?

While flexible work comes with many benefits, remote workers are just as likely as their traditional peers to suffer from job burnout. 

In fact, certain stressors are amplified by remote work.

For example, the line between personal and work time can get blurry. Employees may work extra hours or check their work email during their time off because there is no physical separation between work and home. 

And, without a healthy workplace culture for remote teams, burnout can result. The effects of overworking can have severe consequences for employees and companies as a whole. 

We recently sat down with experts to discuss the importance of mental health in a remote workforce. Their message was clear: as society transitions to flexible work, we need to put well-being at the center of our comprehensive list of strategies for productivity and long-term success. 

But companies shouldn’t leave it to individual workers to prioritize their own self-care over work. Self-care needs to happen at the organizational level to be effective. 

Why is self-care so important for hybrid and office teams?

Hybrid employees and on-premise workers may also work too many hours. They could be putting off their paid leave and developing an unhealthy work-life balance. 

According to the American Psychological Association’s 2021 Work and Well-Being Survey, almost 3 in 5 respondents reported work stress had affected them negatively. They said they lacked motivation, energy, and cognitive function. Nearly half said they also felt physically exhausted.

These are classic signs of burnout, which affects workers across many industries. It causes workers to lose creativity and problem-solving capacity. They’re also sick more often than others.  And these issues cost companies billions of dollars every year.

But the good news is that with effective management — including self-care — this burnout can be averted.

How to build self-care into your work culture

Incorporating self-care into your work culture starts at the top. It’s critical that company leaders take the initiative to discuss and model self-care.

It needs to be a part of the team culture. 

But building a company culture isn’t easy. 

Here are some suggestions for building a self-care culture in the workplace: 

Start with expectations

Make it clear that your team supports self-care. Let employees know that they’re not expected to respond to work messages during their personal time. Encourage them to maintain a healthy work-life balance and take adequate time off for rest.

Use communication tools and “away” messages

Encourage your team to use “away” messages on tools like Slack so that their co-workers know when they are working and when they are off the clock. 

Minimum days off

Consider offering a minimum number of days off. For example, team members might be required to take 20 days off a year. 

That ensures they’re investing in their physical self-care and spending quality time with those who matter to them.

Be flexible

Let your team know that if they have to take a break to care for family members, pets, or other responsibilities during the workday, they can do so.

Give your team breaks when they need them

If your team seems stressed or overtired, give them a day off. Sometimes, an unexpected day off is just what your team needs to avoid burnout.

Model good self-care

If leaders aren’t modeling good self-care, it’s unlikely your team will feel comfortable taking time off. 

That means you should:

  • Take personal leave

  • Clock out on time

  • Take care of your physical health

  • Engage in regular self-care when you need it

Get more advice on creating a healthy, sustainable remote team culture in our guide.

Host a self-care day

Another idea is to host a company-wide self-care day. 

Schedule a day when everyone in the company takes time off to do something they enjoy. This could either be an actual holiday or any day that works best for your team.

Remote offers a self-care day once a quarter. Team members are encouraged to share their self-care with the team later so that no one is tempted to work instead.

Self-care day ideas are a great way to enshrine self-care in your company ethos.

Pro tips from remote work leaders on self-care

Self-care is vital… but don’t take our word for it. We collected advice from a group of remote work pros about how they’ve built self-care into their organizations. 

Tip #1: Self-care starts at the top

Candy Parker, senior HR business partner at New Relic, Inc., underlined the need for company leaders to talk publicly about self-care. 

“It certainly helps when messaging comes from leadership in the form of support, understanding, and coaching,” she said. “As an example, our incoming CEO recently posted an internal blog on balancing work & life. He included some specific things one can do and provided expectations for managers for their part in the relationship/process.”

Tip #2: Get your team moving

Lisa Gregory is a one-person HR department and consultant who’s discovered the power of incorporating movement into the workday. 

“We can accomplish a ton during walking meetings (they walk, I'm at my computer updating trackers, etc.),” she said. She also recommends movement throughout the day: morning and afternoon walks are a huge help to her, her team, and her clients. 

Tip #3: Try a “workcation” 

You’ve heard about digital nomads, but what if the whole company went on vacation together? Thomas Kohler, CEO and co-founder of pplwise, calls that a “workcation” and it’s not just for a week: it’s for a whole month.

“We offer employees a workcation two or three times a year, where the company offers a whole mansion for a full month for any employee in a warm place to work and ’be on vacation,’” he said. “Remote work made it possible.”

Tip #4: Get out the crayons!

“Something we’ve started enjoying is coloring,” said Kyrah Altman, CEO and co-founder of LEAD. “LEAD’s Self-Care Coloring Book for Adults is filled with positive affirmations, notes of positive psychology, and feelings of self-compassion and empowerment!”

According to Altman, coloring improves focus, reduces stress and anxiety, and promotes feelings of calmness, peace, and well-being. 

Tip #5: Foster a sense of connection

Both Gregory and Kohler discussed the importance of a sense of connection and trust between team members. Gregory dedicates the first few minutes of every meeting to simply chatting with co-workers and clients. 

Gregory also encourages team members to check out early, say no, and set realistic deadlines so that work doesn’t spill over into personal time. “Not everything is as urgent as we may think,” she said. 

For Kohler, mutual respect is paramount in creating a culture of self-care. “Certainly, trust from leadership in our employees and each other, paying at least market level salaries and appreciating each other is necessary as a foundation,” he said.

Tip #6: Plan ahead

Marketing manager Douglas Rolim says that being organized about planning his time and his time off has helped him maintain a life-work balance. “What helped keep a mental balance while working remotely has been a sense of direction,” he said. “It becomes easier planning time off-screen and feeling less anxious.”

How do you onboard remote employees? Get more expert tips in our article. 

Remote’s enormous list of self-care ideas and activities

So what can remote workers do to relax and take care of themselves? Below are some suggestions from Remote’s own team members. We’d like to give a special shout-out to Peter Maher, Edmund Hillary Fellow and co-founder of InWonder, who was instrumental in building this list of 100 self-care activities for remote workers.

Remoters have used all of these ideas during our self-care days, and you should bookmark this page and share the list with your team!

100+ Self-care activities for remote workers

Exercise Self Care Ideas

Food Self Care Ideas

Meditation Self Care Ideas

Planning Self Care Ideas

Mindfulness Self Care Ideas

Nature Self Care Ideas

Gratitude Self Care Ideas

Recovery Self Care Ideas

Better Work Self Care Ideas

Relax Self Care Ideas

Self-care is whatever you need it to be

As you can see from the list of self-care activities above, self-care comes in many forms. 

Whatever helps you rest and recharge counts as self-care. It doesn’t matter what the activity is as long as it makes you feel good and lets you take the break you deserve. 

To learn more about striking a balance between your work and personal time, download Greenhouse and Remote’s Life-Work Balance Guide to learn more about creating boundaries between your professional and personal life. 

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