You know how this goes.
I’ll sit down when I finish this.
Then you remember something else.
And something else.
Suddenly it’s the end of the day and you’ve managed to take care of approximately 50 things, and somehow none of them were you.
Sound familiar?
I spent a lot of time thinking I just needed to get better at making time for myself. Maybe I needed a better routine. More discipline. A prettier planner.
Turns out, I didn’t need another thing to be good at.
I needed to stop automatically putting myself last.
It Doesn’t Have to Be a Whole Thing
This is where I think we make putting ourselves first harder than it needs to be.
You don’t need an hour.
You don’t need the perfect morning routine.
And you definitely don’t need to wake up at 5 a.m. unless you’re one of those people who actually enjoys that. In which case, we need to talk.
Sometimes putting yourself first looks incredibly ordinary.
Drinking your coffee while it’s still hot.
Sitting in the car for five extra minutes before going inside.
Writing down what’s bothering you instead of carrying it around all day.
Not answering that text immediately.
Saying, “I can’t do that today.”
Or simply deciding that something can wait until tomorrow.
Those moments count.
Actually, I think those are the moments that matter most.
Start With Five Minutes
If you’re used to taking care of everyone and everything else first, don’t suddenly give yourself a 12-step morning routine.
Give yourself five minutes.
And don’t make the five minutes productive.
That’s the catch.
You’re not organizing anything. You’re not catching up on emails. You’re not making tomorrow’s list.
You’re just giving yourself five minutes where nobody needs anything from you.
Maybe you write.
Maybe you sit there with your coffee.
Maybe you stare out the window and wonder why your neighbor has been mowing the same patch of grass for twenty minutes.
Whatever.
It’s yours.
And Sometimes You Need to Get Something Out of Your Head
This is a big one for me.
There are things we carry around long after they’re useful.
Something someone said.
Something we wish we’d said.
A responsibility we’ve somehow decided belongs to us.
A worry we keep replaying even though replaying it isn’t changing anything.
Sometimes writing it down helps.
Not because writing magically fixes everything. It doesn’t.
But there’s something about seeing the thing that’s been bouncing around your head sitting there on paper.
Oh. That’s what I’ve been carrying.
That idea became part of the reason I created the Permission to Release Kit, a physical way to write down what you’re ready to stop carrying and actually do something with it.
Not because you need another assignment.
Because sometimes we need a little help saying, I’m done carrying this today.
Here’s What I Want You to Try
At some point today, before you automatically move on to the next thing, ask yourself:
What do I need right now?
Not what needs to get done.
Not who needs you.
You.
Maybe the answer is five quiet minutes.
Maybe it’s writing something down.
Maybe it’s saying no.
Maybe it’s absolutely nothing.
That’s allowed too.
Putting yourself first doesn’t have to mean changing your entire life.
Sometimes it just means finally putting your own name somewhere on the list.
And maybe not at the bottom this time.
Permission to Be U.