Write yourself a permission slip.

I want you to try something.

Get a piece of paper — an actual piece of paper, not a note on your phone — and write yourself a permission slip. Like the ones you signed for field trips in elementary school, except this one is for you.

I give myself permission to write today.

Sign it. Put it in your pocket/purse/wallet. Carry it around.

Here’s why this matters: we have a deeply ingrained habit of putting our writing last. After the job is done. After the kids or pets are handled. After the house is clean and the inbox is empty and everything that feels urgent has been dealt with.

But the inbox is never empty. The urgent things multiply. And the writing — the thing that actually feeds you — keeps getting pushed to the end of a list that keeps multiplying.

The permission slip isn’t magic. But it’s a physical reminder that you already have permission. You don’t have to earn it. You don’t have to wait until everything else is handled.

You just have to decide that your writing is one of the things that needs handling too.

Write the slip. Sign it. Mean it.

Then go write something.