Future-Self Self-Care Test
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- —
Lana Blakely rebuilt her definition of self-care after noticing that the trend version, face masks, green juice, guilt-free episodes, had stopped making her feel good in the long run. Her replacement is a single decision rule applied in the moment: is this serving future me, or am I escaping something right now? The mechanism reframes self-care from a category of activities to a direction of benefit. Under it, working hard on a video, training consistently and eating well all count as self-care, because they are what future-you will be glad of, even though present-you feels resistance. Meanwhile, a face mask taken instead of writing the script does not count, because the label is doing the work of an excuse. The test does not ban rest; it stops rest being used as cover for avoidance.
Origin
Extracted from Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal
How to run it
- 1
Notice when you are reaching for the self-care label
The tell is the justification arriving with the activity: I deserve this, I have earned a break, breaks are self-care. That sentence is the trigger for the test, not the answer to it.
- 2
Ask the question literally
Is this serving future me, or am I escaping something right now? Lana's own worked example is putting on a face mask when she should be working on the script, purely because she deserves some self-care.
Pro tip Answer for the version of you tomorrow morning, not the version of you in ten minutes.
- 3
Stop scoring by how the activity feels right now
Resistance is not evidence against something. Many of the things that are good for us in the long run are uncomfortable in the moment, so a felt reluctance is a poor signal for whether an activity qualifies as care.
Watch out The inverse also holds. Pleasantness is not evidence for something either, which is exactly how four-hour breaks get relabelled as recovery.
- 4
Let real rest pass the test too
Sometimes the answer genuinely is the face mask, the episode, the day off. When the honest answer is that future-you benefits from the recovery, take it without guilt. The test is a filter, not an argument for permanent grinding.
- 5
Re-check the escape hatches you use most
Lana's admission is that she bought into the trend too much and fell into using it as an excuse. Look at the specific activities you habitually justify, and re-run the test on each one rather than on the abstract category.
Pro tip Ali's complementary adjustment is dropping the word should, which usually smuggles in someone else's priority and makes the whole question harder to answer honestly.
In the wild
Lana's own worked example is the moment she reaches for a face mask when the script is due. Under the trend definition, the mask is self-care and the script is hustle, so the mask wins and she feels virtuous about it. Under her test, she asks whether the mask serves future her or whether she is escaping the resistance of writing, and the answer is usually the second. She notes the other side too: she genuinely feels good having worked hard on a video, and good after a long stretch of consistent training and eating well, even though neither felt like care in the moment.
→ Self-care stops functioning as a permission slip for avoidance, and the long-run good feeling returns.
Common mistakes
Defining self-care by the activity, not the direction
Once face masks and green juice are self-care by definition, the label stops carrying information. The same activity can be genuine recovery on Tuesday and avoidance on Wednesday, which is precisely why the test has to be applied in the moment.
Using resistance as proof it is not self-care
The most valuable things frequently come with resistance. Treating discomfort as a disqualifier systematically rules out training, deep work and difficult conversations, which is how the escape becomes self-reinforcing.
Flipping into permanent grinding
The test is not an argument that rest never qualifies. Both speakers spend much of the episode arguing the opposite, that unbroken effort burns you out and degrades the work. Sometimes future-you needs the break.
From the transcript
“self-care to me right now is just serving my future self.”
“because a lot of the good things or things that are going to be good for us in the long run are things that are…”
From the episode
How To Find Tranquility, Meaningful Productivity and Healthy Relationships - Lana Blakely
Lana Blakely