As a generally anxious person, my duty week brings a lot of negative emotions. Even during the less busy summers and semester weekdays, my brain is always working overtime thinking about the different scenarios I might encounter and how best to address them. During the first few years of my professional career, I would worry myself sick about all the things that might happen if I were to even leave campus for 10 minutes. Now 5+ years into my professional career, I’ve had a lot of opportunities to experiment with my own self care practices in preparation for, during, and in the aftermath of my duty week. If you’re a new professional (or just anxious like me), here are some of the key self-care practices I’ve used over the years that have been the most impactful for me.
Before Duty Week
- Plan your meals, and make them easy! If you’re a person that loves to cook, look into slow cooker recipes or things that can be left on their own for a while in the event that you have to suddenly respond to an incident. There’s also no shame in stocking your fridge and freezer full of premade meals!
- Treat yourself at the grocery store. You know that chocolate bar you only buy once a month because it’s $7? Yeah, that one! Go ahead and pick yourself up a few of your favorite treats. Your mind and body are working overtime so there’s nothing wrong with picking up a few treats that nourish your soul.
- Do your laundry! This one may seem like a no-brainer, but there are few things worse than discovering that all your work polos are smelly when you get a call that needs a physical response at 2am. I like to prepare 2-3 duty outfits and only wear those items when responding so they stay fresher longer. If you’re really in a pinch you can always give that polo a quick Febreze too. I won’t tell anyone, I promise.
- Prepare for a slow week. While duty weeks can certainly have you hustling all over campus, there can also be those slower weeks that seem to drag on forever. I like to create a long list of things I’d like to accomplish around my apartment in the event that I wind up with a lot of down time. My list usually includes revisiting video games I never finished and doing all the chores I normally avoid.
- Take advantage of your resources! One of the best practical ways I am able to combat my feelings of anxiety around duty is to increase my knowledge in the areas I’m most anxious about. If you’re worried about what to do in the event of bed bugs, read your department’s bed bug response procedure! Talk to your coworkers in your duty rotation to learn all about the common types of incidents at your institution and the administrative steps of duty (how to submit a duty log, the duty check in process, etc.)
- Set your friends and family up for success. If you usually have a high level of contact with friends and/or family, talk to them about your duty week. You don’t need to get too into detail with them, but making sure they understand that you’re working and not blowing them off can make your support system even stronger. Who knows, some of them might even bring you your favorite meal after a particularly busy night.
During Duty Week
- Shower during the day. For me, feeling clean has an immense positive impact on my mental health. As a night showerer, I often found myself putting off a full shower routine to prioritize being available for the duty phone. Shifting that shower to the morning, right after work, or even during my lunch break ensures that I make time for important hygiene habits.
- Set up your duty battlestation. Being organized helps reassure me, especially when a 2am call can have me waking up frazzled. Having a duty “battlestation” prepared before you go to bed can help you be all the more prepared for a late night call. For me, this looks like having my laptop plugged in by the bed with duty resources all bookmarked, a reliable pen and paper available on my nightstand, and a complete set of clothes folded and ready.
- Dig deep into your comfort activities. Normally, my partner and I are all over the place with what activities we are doing at home. One week, he’s showing me his favorite anime and the next we’re binging every creature feature we can find on our streaming services. In a week of uncertainty, I choose to lean into familiarity. If you’ve got a favorite show or hobby that elicits those warm fuzzy feelings, queue it up for your duty week.
- Don’t commit to activities that are hard to get out of. I once asked a coworker where she drew the line when it came to what she would and wouldn’t do while on duty. We just so happened to be walking in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, so she pointed to one of those pirate tour ships and jokingly said, “Probably that.” It was a lighthearted moment, but fitting to this point. If you find yourself in a position where you are diving head-first off a pirate ship to get back to campus in time, you’ve committed to something that could put your job and the safety of others at risk.
- Don’t participate in activities that increase your stress. It’s true, some sources of stress in our lives are unavoidable. We also have different things that cause us different amounts of stress. So while I can’t advise you on what specifically to avoid, I can tell you that if an optional activity you are engaging with during your duty week causes you increased stress, you have every right to step away from that activity.
- Takeout, in moderation. Sometimes takeout can be a nice break from eating what you have at home. It can also be easy to fall into the trap of ordering takeout every night you’re on duty just out of convenience. I’m not here to shame anybody’s food choices, but all of that takeout can make a huge impact on your wallet, and speaking for myself only, too many days of takeout can really make me feel sluggish.
- Ask for help. We tell our student staff all the time that they have a whole support network of on-call professionals at their disposal, yet how often do we follow our own advice? If you need backup or a second opinion, call the other professionals in your network. If you need some time away from campus, ask a coworker if they can hold the phone for a bit.
After Duty Week
- Take the day off. You’ve just spent a week prioritizing everyone else over yourself! It’s time to reset and take some time back. Whether you’re catching up on sleep, errands, or doing absolutely nothing, you deserve it.
- Get off campus. Even as a homebody, there is nothing more freeing than getting off campus after my duty week, even if I’m just meeting a friend for lunch 10 minutes down the road. Enjoy a change of scenery!
- Treat yourself. After all that time on campus, it’s likely that you saved up a bit of money not going out with your friends or going on your weekly Target run. My go-to treat is some sushi and a blind box figurine.
- Reflect. While it isn’t as fun or exciting as taking a day off or buying yourself something nice, reflecting on how your week went can be informative and help you better prepare for your next one. Did the self care that you tried actually work? What ended up being the most stressful moment? Did you surprise yourself in any ways? What might you like to try differently next time?
Duty is seldom our favorite part of the job, but it is so vital in supporting the health and safety of our students. However, supporting others doesn’t have to come at our own expense, so I hope this post gives you some ideas for how to improve your duty week experience.
