Day 74: I took charge of my own time. Yes, I did. When people stopped by my desk, I asked them to book time on my calendar to talk. When my husband asked me to review an email before he sent it, I told him I would do it when I got home from work. When a friend told me that I needed to book a flight through the Southwest deal now-now-now before the sale ends, I said I would check later. When I wanted to not brush my teeth or fold the laundry or do the dishes or open the mail or check the Southwest Airlines deal, I went to bed and refused to feel guilty. I didn’t say no. I might need to start doing that, too, but for today I got into the habit of saying “not right now.”

I feel a little bitchy, like it was a day of telling other people that my time was more important than theirs. I think that’s my problem, though. I always let other people’s time be more important than mine and it means that I feel constantly interrupted, scattered, like I’m trying to squeeze my life around other people. “Not right now” is still nice, right? But I also don’t know why I feel the need to always be so nice.