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Sunday has a strange double life. It’s often a day off, and it’s also the day the week ahead starts leaning over your shoulder. A self-care Sunday is about using the first part well and putting the second part in its place.
A self-care Sunday is a day, or a few hours, set aside to recharge: some rest, some movement, a small reset of your home, time with people you like, something just for fun and a few minutes to clear your head. Match the plan to your energy, and spend ten minutes writing down the week ahead so it stops nagging you tonight.
Plan your self-care Sunday
Tell us how you feel and how much time you have.
Energy
Time
Swap any slot you don’t like. Nothing you choose or type is stored or sent.
Quick takeaways
- Plan to your energy, not your ideal. A low-energy Sunday deserves a low-effort plan.
- Mix a few kinds of self-care: rest, movement, people, fun, a home reset and some quiet.
- Two or three things is a full day. Leave gaps.
- Write down the week’s three main tasks and when you’ll do them. Research suggests a plan quiets unfinished tasks.
- Protect one part of the day from your phone.
What is a self-care Sunday?
A self-care Sunday is a deliberate slow day, or part of a day, spent on things that recharge you rather than things you have to do. It isn’t about spending money or a perfect routine. It’s about ending the week feeling a bit more like yourself.
Self-care covers more than baths and face masks. The World Health Organization’s definition of self-care is about people’s ability to “promote health, prevent disease, maintain health and cope with illness,” which in everyday terms means sleep, food, movement, connection and a bit of quiet. A self-care Sunday is just a regular slot to look after those.
If you want to see which of those areas needs the most attention this week, the self care wheel is a two-minute check-in.
How do you plan a self-care Sunday?
Check your energy, decide how much time you have, then choose one thing for each part of the day from different kinds of self-care. End with ten minutes of looking at the week ahead. Keep it loose: the plan is a suggestion, not a schedule.
- Check your energy. Running on empty, somewhere in the middle, or plenty to spare?
- Decide the time. An hour, half the day or the whole day.
- Pick one thing per slot. Morning, afternoon, evening. Different kinds, so you don’t spend the whole day on chores.
- Protect one slot from your phone. Even an hour.
- Look at the week ahead. Ten minutes in the evening. Write three things and when you’ll do them.
- Stop there. Don’t start the week early.
Self-care Sunday ideas
The ideas below are grouped into six kinds of self-care: rest, body, home reset, connection, joy and mind. Mix at least three kinds in one Sunday. The planner above picks from the same list, matched to your energy.
Rest
- Sleep in with no alarm.
- Take a nap under a blanket.
- Read in bed for an hour.
- Have a slow breakfast with no phone.
- Watch a movie you’ve seen before and love.
- Take a long bath or shower.
- Listen to an album start to finish.
- Lie on the floor and do nothing for ten minutes.
- Go to bed early.
- Spend the afternoon on the couch without guilt.
Body
- Stretch for ten minutes.
- Take a long walk somewhere green.
- Try a gentle yoga video.
- Go for a swim.
- Cook something fresh and colorful.
- Drink a big glass of water first thing.
- Go on a bike ride.
- Batch-cook lunches for the week.
- Get outside in daylight before noon.
- Do something active you enjoyed as a kid.
Home reset
- Change the bed sheets.
- Clear one surface.
- Open all the windows for ten minutes.
- Do a 30-minute tidy with music on.
- Do one load of laundry from start to finish.
- Plan the week’s meals.
- Clear out one drawer.
- Put fresh flowers or a plant somewhere you’ll see it.
- Empty the fridge of anything past its best.
- Lay out Monday’s clothes.
Connection
- Message a friend you haven’t talked to in a while.
- Call a family member.
- Go for coffee or a walk with a friend.
- Cook a meal for someone.
- Have Sunday lunch with people you like.
- Write a card or letter.
- Play a board game with your household.
- Reply to the messages you’ve been putting off.
- Chat with a neighbor.
- Plan something to look forward to with someone.
Joy
- Draw, doodle or color for 15 minutes.
- Go to a café with a book.
- Try a new recipe.
- Visit a museum, gallery or market.
- Work on a hobby for an hour.
- Go somewhere you’ve never been, even nearby.
- Watch something that makes you laugh.
- Bake something.
- Play music, badly or well.
- Do a puzzle.
Mind
- Journal for five minutes about the week that’s ending.
- Do a brain dump of everything on your mind.
- Sit outside without your phone for ten minutes.
- Try a guided meditation.
- Take a walk without headphones.
- Write down three good things from the week.
- Do a weekly review: what worked, what didn’t.
- Turn off notifications for the afternoon.
- Read something that isn’t on a screen.
- Write three things for the week ahead and when you’ll do them.
How do you stop dreading Monday on Sunday night?
Write down what’s coming up this week and give the main tasks a day and a time. Unfinished tasks tend to intrude on your thoughts until you make a plan for them. Ten minutes on Sunday evening is enough, and then close the notebook.
In a series of experiments, psychologists E. J. Masicampo and Roy Baumeister found that unfinished goals kept intruding on people’s thoughts and got in the way of other tasks. Making a specific plan for the goal made that interference disappear, even though the goal itself wasn’t done yet.
So on Sunday evening:
- List what’s on your mind for the week. Everything, quickly. A brain dump works well.
- Pick the three that matter most.
- Give each a day and a time. “Report: Thursday morning, before emails.”
- Close the notebook. The plan is made. The rest of Sunday is yours.
For more ways to look after yourself on paper, the self-care and wellbeing hub has a guide to keeping a self-care journal.
Self-care Sunday questions
What do you do on a self-care Sunday?
Something restful, something for your body, a small home reset, time with someone you like, something just for fun and a few minutes to clear your head. Two or three of these is a good Sunday.
How do I do a self-care Sunday on a budget?
Most of the ideas above are free: a walk, a nap, a library book, calling a friend, cooking at home, a tidy with music on. Self-care doesn’t need a shopping list.
What if I work on Sundays?
Pick your day off instead. The idea is a regular slot to recharge, not a particular day of the week.
Is a self-care Sunday the same as a Sunday reset?
They overlap. A Sunday reset usually focuses on getting the house and the week ready. A self-care Sunday includes some of that, but puts rest and enjoyment first.
How long should a self-care Sunday be?
As long as you have. An hour can be enough if you protect it. A whole day is lovely, but it shouldn’t become another thing to get right.
Mike Arnold
Mike is a first-year counselling student who has journaled on and off for most of his life. He writes the how-to guides and the occasional bit of philosophy. About our writers