The morning puja most of us grew up watching took an hour. Our grandparents had the hour. We have fifteen minutes between the alarm and the first call, and the choice is not between an hour and nothing. It is between fifteen good minutes and a guilty skip.
Minute 0 to 3: the reset
Wash your face, hands, and feet. Change out of what you slept in. This is not fussiness. Your body reads clean clothes as a signal that something different is about to happen, and the mind follows. Keep a puja kurta by the mandir so there is nothing to think about.
Minute 3 to 5: light
One diya, one incense stick. Do not multiply. The act of striking the match and watching the flame catch is the real beginning. Ring the bell once.
Minute 5 to 11: the offering
Water, a flower if you have one, a pinch of kumkum or chandan. Then the part that matters: sit down, close your eyes, and say your mantra or prayer slowly, out loud or under your breath. Six minutes of this is longer than it sounds. If your mind runs to the day ahead, that is fine. Bring it back once and you have done the work.
Minute 11 to 14: aarti
Short aarti, one verse if that is all you know. Circle the flame, touch it to your eyes, offer it to anyone else in the house. Put a small piece of fruit or a sweet as naivedya. Eat it after.
Minute 14 to 15: the pause
Before you stand, sit for sixty seconds doing nothing. This minute is the one people skip and it is the one that changes the day.
Making it stick
Same time daily, same spot, everything laid out the night before. Tie it to something you already do without fail, like the kettle or the first coffee. Put the phone in another room. And decide once, in advance, that fifteen minutes counts. Because it does.