About Not Today

The song was first heard of on October 25, 2018, when Cara announced the album's tracklist?. On November 13, 2018, she confirmed that there would be "one more surprise" before the album's release came along. The song was then premiered on Beats 1 with Zane Lowe at 12 PM Eastern Time.

Cara revealed on Twitter that she wrote the song's lyrics from top to bottom while she was feeling miserable and realizing it was okay to "bask in it until [she] was ready to try happiness again." She stated that an older tweet of hers, which simply said "misery management", was a hint toward the song, since it is mentioned in the lyrics. Lyrically, the song describes a person who is depressed and feeling extremely miserable. They understand that one day, they will be free of this sadness, but that they aren't quite at that point yet.