The Most Important UI: You

Last given at the QueerJS Berlin meetup on July 27, 2023.

Readings

📖 Definition of self-care
"A self-initiated, deliberate act to establish and maintain physical, mental and emotional health"

📖 I won't tell you to stop working, but I can try to help you not burn out
A Medium article by Jennifer Parsons about why self-care is a problem in the tech industry.

📖 User interface on Wikipedia
The super scientific reference I used for the definition of UI.

Resources

🌟 selfcare.tech
Open source repository full of resources, sorted by category, targeted specifically at developers and others working in tech. Since 2021, they also have a Remote Work Resources page.

💩 You Feel Like Shit
A check-in tool that asks a series of looping questions to discover and track which areas of self-care you should focus on.

✅ Self-care checklist
Manual checklist from Marcia Reynolds covering topics like work environment, money, relationships, and more.

📱 Aloe Bud iOS App
A self-care companion app where you can build out your own dashboard - balancing concrete actions, self-reflection, and gentle reminders.

📱 Medications app on Apple Watch
Manage the medications, vitamins, and supplements you take in the Health app on your iPhone or the Medications app on your Apple Watch.

👐🏼 Programming Your Hands
Exercises you can do at your desk that focus on a developer's tool of choice - hands.

📓 Burnout.io
A resource that reads like software docs by breaking down issues and providing actionable steps for burnout prevention and recovery.

🧘🏼‍♀️ Yoga with Adriene
Inclusive and themed online yoga practices.

💬 It's Complicated
An online platform that helps you find a therapist.

🌲 How to Ground Yourself: 9 Techniques
In-depth guide that explains the benefits of grounding, including nine ways to ground yourself (including estimated minimum times).

Twitter Bots

❎ A guide to self-care Twitter bots
List of Twitter bots devoted to self-care, written by yours truly. For each bot, I cover its background, style, tweet frequency and favorite topics.
⚠️ Warning: Many of these bots have been inactive since Twitter ended free API access in April 2023.

Only bot still going (as of July 18, 2023):
🤖 @everydaycarebot

Mastodon Bots

🤖 @selfcare@botsin.space
🤖 @selfcare_gentle@botsin.space
🤖 @selfcare@masto.ai

Online communities

🍋 100 Days of Healthing
A challenge that mimics the concept of 100 days of coding, except you commit to spending 1 hour per day on your physical, mental or emotional health for 100 days.

🌈 QueerJS Discord
Special shout out to the #support-and-venting channel.

Ask Yourself Daily

💖 What have I done today that feels nourishing, supportive and inspiring for my well-being?

Special thanks

✨ Jessica Rose and Paul Adams
They helped me write the first iteration of this talk and gave me the opportunity to present it at Write the Docs Prague.

Fun fact: It was my very first talk 🥺

✨ Dylan Schiemann
Dylan came up with the cheesy and brilliant title the talk has now! Before it was just 'Self-care in tech'.