"I Don't Have Time to Meditate" Toolkit (Vol. 1)

Three quick-hit practices for when you only have five minutes to reset

Hey friends,

Happy Friday! I want this Substack to be a steady rhythm of support for your practice. With my live Do Nothing Project on Sunday nights, it seems to make sense to spread that signal out, and have this meditation / post come out earlier in the week, on Wednesdays or Thursdays. Let me know in the Comments if you have a strong preference either way

Image Credit: Nikada from Getty Images Signature

Another aspiration for this Substack is to create a (mostly) free library of meditations for every kind of human challenge and opportunity. Since the challenges and opportunities of being human are, well, infinite, this library … will never stop growing! I also want to make sure I have a mix of meditation lengths. For this post, I’m including three short meditations that can be done on the fly, all archived individually under a new column “Quick Meditations.” If you’re hankering for something longer, the “Archive” has piles of 10 - 15 minute meditations, the “Extended Meditations” column has meditations from 15 - 25 minutes, and the full Do Nothing Project Archive on YouTube has hundreds of 35 minute meditations.

So here are some quick hits. Each of these also has a stand-alone post in the Quick Meditations section.

I made this meditation for Happier ages ago; they’re letting me re-post it here. It’s a simple practice that I still use to shift my disposition anytime I’m feeling uptight or contracted:

- The Most Basic Meditation

The next is called Ten Good Breaths. Very simple, just what it sounds like. Also one of the first meditations I ever recorded for an app - over ten years ago now – you can hear it in my fresh nasal newbie voice:

- 10 Good Breaths

The last one is a short version of a meditation I originally made for Home Base – here. It’s about finding an enjoyable rhythm wherever you incline your attention: in the breath, a phrase, or a visualization. Something to help you get a bit absorbed, and reset the moment.

- Rhythm

All right! Have a great week. Check out the notes section below for some new changes to the Do Nothing Project.

Love,
Jeff.

A few quick notes—

• The next Do Nothing Project (DNP) is Sunday, April 12 at 8pm EDT. Link here. *NOTE: This DNP is only for paid subscribers. For the next while, the DNP will be for paid subscribers three times a month, and free for everyone the first Sunday of the month. Full scholarships are available for anyone who asks – email info@jeffwarren.org.

• New to Home Base? We have over 70 free guided meditations in our audio library, over 60 extended meditations, over 365 meditations on YouTube, and a growing number of community practice videos. New writing, new audio meditations, and new DNP live community practice sessions happen every week.

• Did you find me on Calm or Happier? While the meditations I recorded for the apps live on in perpetuity, I no longer record new meditations for them. My latest work happens here; becoming a paid subscriber is the best way to support that work. If you found this meditation and post helpful, but becoming a paid subscriber isn’t an option, you can also …

Many thanks!

Meditation, Movement, Mystery – British Columbia

May 13-17, 2026
Hollyhock Cortes Island, BC

This will be a different kind of retreat offering. Less structured, more room for silence and spontaneity. The idea is to make space for some of the more personalized movements of practice that come through when we really listen. Two good friends will be joining me. Scott Davis is a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner and yoga & movement genius – he will help us connect to our bodies. And Kalen Colson is a nature-based therapist – they will help us connect to the land.