60. Planning as Self-Care: How Nurses Can Reduce Burnout & Overwhelm

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In this episode of The Nurses' Break Room with Jenny Lytle, RN, we explore how weekly planning is more than just a productivity hack—it's a powerful form of self-care, especially for nurses juggling changing shifts, emotional demands, and personal commitments.

You’ll learn:

• Why “just winging it” leads to burnout and resentment
• How planning ahead helps you create space for you—not just everyone else
• How “energy management” is just as important as time management
• Tiny moments of joy and rest that you can sprinkle into your busy day

Whether you're a nurse, caregiver, or someone who’s constantly taking care of others, this episode will show you how to plan from a place of self-compassion, not guilt.

🎧 Tune in and reclaim your peace—one week at a time.

📌 Takeaways & Action Steps (for Description or Blog Use):

Top 5 Takeaways:

1. Planning isn’t just about logistics—it’s a powerful way to care for your mental and emotional health.
2. Prepping your week in advance (Friday or Sunday) helps reduce anxiety and increase clarity.
3. Consider your energy, not just your time—especially during new seasons, jobs, or emotional demands.
4. Build a “micro self-care list” you can pull from when you’re stressed.
5. You don’t need a spa day—nature walks, breathing, or solo grocery trips can be deeply restorative.

Action Steps:

• Look at your week ahead and build in “margin” where you can.
• Save 3–5 small, joy-inducing self-care actions in a note on your phone.
• Try box breathing: inhale 4 sec, hold 4 sec, exhale 4 sec, hold 4 sec—repeat for 1 minute.
• Schedule one intentional joy moment each day this week.
• Give yourself grace—especially when you’re navigating change.

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 

Feeling stressed? Grab my quick and easy Busy Nurses' Guide to Less Stress for practical stress relief that truly fits into your life! https://www.jennylytle.com/guide

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

Episode Transcript

Jenny (00:00):
Hello and welcome back to another episode of The Nurses'
Break Room with Jenny Lytle, RN.
This week we are going to talkabout planning as a way of
self-care.
So maybe that's planning ourdays and our weeks ahead of
time, but also keeping the bigpicture in mind.
I know how easy it can be tokind of get on autopilot and

(00:24):
just go through the motions,taking things day by day and
week by week.
And, you know, for some of you,maybe a lot of that looks the
same, but it's also possiblethat your schedules can change a
lot, whether that be workschedules or things with family,
kids, other commitments thatyou have.
And when we don't take time toreally look ahead and plan ahead

(00:50):
for those types of things, thenwe can find ourselves feeling
overwhelmed, exhausted,overbooked, and then wonder why
it is that we feel so cranky orwe're not getting the things
done that we want to get done,or that maybe we're getting
things done for everyone else,but we're not doing the things

(01:11):
that we want to do forourselves, whether that be
working out or having downtime,or maybe it's just even getting
enough sleep or having time forhealthy meals, having time to be
with the people that mattermost to us.
Ideally, I like to have my planfor the upcoming week ready on

(01:34):
Friday before I finish the day,so that I'm able to enjoy the
weekend a little bit more.
Now, in reality, that doesn'talways happen.
Sometimes it's something thatI'm doing on Saturday or Sunday,
where I take a look at what theupcoming week looks like, what
I'll I have scheduled, when I'mgoing to be able to fit in maybe
some of those other things thatneed to be done, regardless of

(01:56):
how busy things are.
And figure out are there timeswhen I need to do something a
little extra to prepare for easymeals?
Now that it's just my husbandand me at home, it's easier
because we can eat leftovers, wedon't mind that a bit, we can

(02:18):
eat easy things, and that's notsomething that bothers us.
But still, it's making surethat one of us goes to the
grocery store and that we havethings on hand.
But more than just the verylogistical things, it's looking
at energy management.
I am in the midst of starting anew job right now.

(02:40):
I'm only a couple of weeks intothat.
And so I'm still learning a lotof the ropes, and that's
something that takes a lot ofemotional bandwidth, in addition
to, of course, time out of myday.
So knowing that, being able tobe a little more gentle with
myself, have a little moregrace, because I'm going to be

(03:02):
more tired when you're on forpeople that you don't know and
you're learning things, it'ssomething that can be kind of
exhausting.
So I'm allowing myself a littlemore cushion than I normally
would.
And I'm making sure that I fitin more time to fill up my own

(03:23):
cup, like I did this weekend.
On Saturday, I got called outearly.
I was on call Friday night.
I got called out early andneeded to go to Indianapolis.
And while I was there, Ithought, okay, you know what?
I was going to come home and goto the farmer's market here
locally.

(03:43):
And I thought, you know,there's a couple of things that
I'd like to get at Trader Joe's.
And so it turned into somethingbecause I had my Saturday open.
It turned into such a beautifulday of just kind of going with
what I needed.
And I was so thankful to beable to have that time and have
that freedom to do that.

(04:05):
And my husband was fullysupportive of that when I'd call
him and updating him.
Hey, I'm going to do thisthing.
And I ended up going to acouple of different grocery
stores.
And I went to a park that meansso much to me.
And I had some time in nature.
It was just, it was a gorgeousday.
It was in the upper 80s, andhere we are in the end of

(04:28):
September.
And I was able to get out andwalk and just enjoy the
sunshine.
And it really renewed me from abody, mind, spirit level.
And those are the kind ofthings that we really need,
especially when we're goingthrough big changes or big

(04:53):
stressors.
But really fitting those littlethings in all the time on a
day-to-day basis is what canhelp us stay strong, stay
joyful, stay calm and peacefulin the midst of everything that
might be going on.
And so I know that some of youhave things going on in your

(05:20):
lives that don't allow for halfa day journeys to multiple
locations and enjoying all ofthose different things.
And in reality, I don't eithermost of the time.
But it's the little things thatwe can fit in, the little
things that we know help us feelmore peaceful, that really can

(05:46):
make a difference in our dailylives in the midst of all of the
busyness.
I'm talking about simplethings.
We're going to come back tobreathing for a minute because
it is so impactful.
That's what resets our nervoussystem.
That's what gets us out of thatconstant fight or flight mode.
And instead allows our body toknow, hey, it's safe.

(06:09):
It's safe here.
So when we start feelinganxious or when we're getting
ready to go into a new task, andwe take a minute or two to just
take some deep breaths, you cando box breathing where you
inhale for a count of four, holdfor a count of four, exhale for

(06:31):
four, and hold for four.
And do a minute of those deepbreaths and holds, and you'll
feel yourself calmer and morerelaxed.
Then think about the thingsthat bring you joy.

(06:52):
I encourage you to have a listof small things that make you
smile.
And ideally, those are thingsthat are non-electronic because
we can all escape with somegiggling babies on social media.
And yes, that can be fun, butit's also easy to get stuck in a
spiral of, you know, justscrolling through one thing

(07:14):
after another.
But things that are easilyaccessible, maybe looking out
into nature.
You know, if you're not able toget outside, at least being by
a window and just pausing andbeing able to look at the things
that are going on there.
Maybe it's connecting with afriend via text or ideally phone

(07:37):
call where you can hear eachother's voice, even if just for
a couple of minutes.
It's having some of thosethings in your back pocket that
can help you to be able tode-stress at a moment's notice.
Because when we're stressedout, that's not the time to
figure out ways to de-stressourselves.
It's having those things in ourtoolbox already that can really

(07:59):
make a big difference.
So looking at your upcomingweek, where do you maybe need a
little more margin or a littlegrace with yourself because
there's not much margin?
Where can you fit in micromoments of self-care?
And what will you do duringthose times?

(08:22):
And maybe take a minute or twoto write some of those things
down or save them on your phoneso that you always have them
with you.
If you'd like to try somethingnew, then perhaps consider
something fun that you can dofor yourself each day this week.
It doesn't have to be anythingbig, it doesn't have to be

(08:44):
anything that takes a long time,but something intentional that
you can do to bring joy toyourself this week.
Until next time, remember selfcare isn't selfish.
It's essential if we want tocontinue to care for others and
live our best lives.
Have a wonderful week.