I’ve never been much of a single-minded person. I’m the total opposite, actually—I have about 100 thoughts running through my head at a given time and only one body to perform said given thoughts.

I was scrolling through my Instagram yesterday when I saw a photo with the caption, “My goal is to wake up with clarity, and go to sleep with clarity.”

Man. If only.

When I started my new job, this was one of my main goals—more or less. [My actual goal was to take care of the little things, which you can read about here.] At first, I really hit it. Every morning, I dedicated 30 minutes of core work on my living room floor before I left for work. This gave me the satisfaction that no matter HOW CRAZY the day got, I still did something active [doing something active each day=one of my ten commandments.]

I brushed my teeth twice a day, I kept a gratitude journal, I rolled my Achilles to keep the inflammation down. I felt very in control of my new but hectic routine.

That lasted all of three weeks. Give or take.

The first thing to get cut was my thirty minutes of core work. Then I started writing less blog posts. And before you knew it, I couldn’t remember the last time I called my Grandpa or saw my friend Paula—one of my absolute best friends on planet Earth.

I want to get back to that. Somehow. And frankly I’m not sure the best way to get there. I wrote about my day before I fell asleep last night, but didn’t ice my Achilles. I did eight minutes of core instead of my usual thirty before hopping in the shower this morning. Finally, I wrote this post as fast as humanly possible (is it that obvious?) in the coffee shop beneath my apartment before running off to work.

How do you all do it? How do you find those minutes—either before your day starts or at the end of it—to feel like a normal, sane person? How do you get that clarity, those few minutes to yourself, so everything else feels in check?

For the record, this isn’t a “tell me in the comments” question. I actually want to know.