Why "I Don't Have Time for Myself" Is a Lie Your To-Do List Told You.
Lola Olajide, founder of mindful colouring book brand Ruthy Michaels, smiling and holding two colouring markers against an orange background, self-care and mindfulness colouring for busy mums and caregivers.
You sit down. Five minutes, that's all you wanted. And before your hand even reaches for anything, the guilt shows up first: the laundry pile staring at you from the corner, the school bag that still needs sorting, the message you haven't replied to.
So you get back up.
If this sounds familiar, you're not alone, and you're not lazy, selfish, or bad at managing your time. You're a mum, a carer, a woman who has spent so long putting everyone else first that stopping for yourself feels like breaking a rule nobody actually wrote.
The Lie We Keep Telling Ourselves
"I don't have time for myself" sounds like a fact. It isn't. It's a habit, one built from years of believing that your needs come after everyone else's, if they come at all.
Here's the truth: self-care isn't the opposite of caring for others. It's what lets you keep doing it. You can't keep pouring from an empty cup, and pretending you can is exactly how burnout sneaks up on the most capable, most "together" women.
You Don't Need an Hour. You Need Five Minutes.
This is the part that changes everything: you don't need a spa day, a weekend away, or a two-hour window that will never actually appear in your week. You need five minutes, and you already have those. Between school drop-off and the next thing. During the kettle boiling. After everyone's finally asleep.
Five minutes is enough.
Why Colouring Works When Everything Else Feels Like Too Much
Colouring isn't just something to do with your hands. For busy mums and women running on empty, it works because:
No set-up. No equipment to find, no app to open, no plan to make. Just a page and a pencil.
No failure. There's no wrong way to colour in a page. No performance, no pressure to get it right.
No screen. A rare five minutes that isn't lit up by a notification or someone else's voice.
No commitment. Stop after one line or stay for twenty minutes. Either way, it counts.
It's not about the finished page. It's about the five minutes where the to-do list had to wait.
Your Five Minutes Start Here
You don't need permission, but if you did, here it is: sit down, pick up a pencil, and give yourself the five minutes you'd never think to ask for.
Which page will you start with?
Shop the collection: Shop Self-Care Tools & Journals — Ruthy Michaels UK — Ruthy Michaels
