---
title: Treat yourself days
teaser: Be kind to yourself and do something special today.
tags: work-life balance,prevent burnout,happiness
author: Valeria Graffeo
published_on: 2023-08-23
---

At thoughtbot, we occasionally get to expense a meal when we have certain team-wide or company-wide meetings.
I look forward to these events, and each time they happen I get really excited at the idea of having free lunch that day.
It's not a practical thing, I eat lunch every day, but this lunch will be a memorable one.
I can get a treat out of the ordinary... my teammates know, my go-to will be in 99.9% of the cases sushi.

I started thinking about this in a more symbolic way, and tried to conceive it as a moment when I allow myself to get a special treat.
And this is when something I do at work pours into my life, and it's an unexpected, positive and refreshing feeling.

I extended this habit to nominate two days a month, when I treat myself with something different: maybe it's sushi (_again_).
Or it's stopping by the seaside on my bike ride and taking a few minutes to stare at the horizon,
instead of rushing and focusing on the watts and the workout. 
Or when it's past the end of the workday, and I realize there's a piece of code that is not working quite right,
is tomorrow's problem, and it's time for a break.

I want to allow myself to hit the brakes, stop scrambling left and right, and relax for a little while.