When I was a high school student, I wanted to create a television series every week of the year. I needed to make a report on how well my television series would do, and I also wanted to do it for myself to see if this would be something worth pursuing.

However, I was a very busy high school student. I was juggling three AP classes at the time, I was on a varsity sports team, and I had to get ready to move in a month.

It seemed like everything was falling apart. I began to always spend my energy in the afternoons putting things in boxes. My classes began to get harder, and I needed to spend extra time studying for the SAT, which was coming up in a few months. After long hours of work at school, my sports team demanded a lot of time and energy, and practices would end at 5 p.m. before I had to drive home.

In my head, I thought, I’m never going to be able to produce these television episodes. I had planned to make three episodes a week, where I had to write them myself and then film them myself as well. It was like filming stand-up comedy, so it was easy to do with one person. However, even if I wanted help, I wasn’t going to get it. Then one day, I went to my whiteboard and thought, I have so many demands during the day, I need to have time where I can just do my work. Since schedules are always changing, I would only ever get in the flow or on a roll with my television work if I had nothing to do one day or if it was a free weekend where I could spend time working on it. However, I knew that would never help me because if I didn’t have a consistent schedule for how I wanted to achieve my goal, I knew it would never happen. I then thought about the only time during my day when I had absolutely zero interruptions and could be free. The answer was simple, and I think it goes for everyone:

1. The exact moment when you wake up

I knew during this time, I wouldn’t have any social issues, no one would be bothering me, I wouldn’t have any assignments or lectures, and I wouldn’t have any practices. I knew that no matter the day, even if I had a special birthday party, a sports tournament, or a running meet, I would be able to do something for 15 minutes after I woke up.

You need to win and allow yourself to have those moments after you wake up. There may be times throughout the day when things are spontaneous, and you can’t control what happens, but right when you wake up, that should be your time. If you can’t set aside 15 minutes or have the discipline for it, start with 5 minutes.

When you wake up, spend those 5 minutes for yourself—either stretching, exercising, or writing. If you want to write every day, then you need to do it the moment you wake up. Get it out of the way and build the discipline to do it daily.

By starting your day with 5 minutes of writing or working on a personal project, you build the most important habit for yourself.

2. The 15 minutes before bed

You should bookend your day by using the first 5 minutes when you wake up and the last 5 minutes before bed to work toward helping yourself or a project you care about.

Everyone says they’re too busy and would need to change their schedule to make time. No. You have time. I can assure you that right when you wake up, you don’t have anything to do. And if you do, wake up 5 minutes earlier. I can also assure you that you don’t have anything to do or anyone bothering you in the 15 minutes before bed.

These are the most important times for writing and wellness. I like to plan my next day during the 5-minute writing session I have before bed, and then in the mornings, I do the writing I assigned myself the night before.

3. Inalienable Rights

These are inalienable rights. In other words, they are things that can’t be taken away. You need to do these two things every day to build discipline. The good news is that they can’t be taken away. They’re my non-negotiables. If someone plans to do something with me in the mornings, I make sure to set aside 15 minutes for myself first, so I can complete my tasks that have become rights.