diff --git a/daemon/timerthread.c b/daemon/timerthread.c
index 72934f01b..2226048b3 100644
--- a/daemon/timerthread.c
+++ b/daemon/timerthread.c
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ static void timerthread_run(void *p) {
 		// find the first element if we haven't determined it yet
 		struct timerthread_obj *tt_obj = tt->obj;
 		if (!tt_obj) {
-			tt_obj = rtpe_g_tree_find_first(tt->tree, NULL, NULL);
+			tt_obj = rtpe_g_tree_first(tt->tree);
 			if (!tt_obj)
 				goto sleep_now;
 
@@ -198,7 +198,7 @@ void timerthread_queue_run(void *ptr) {
 	mutex_lock(&ttq->lock);
 
 	while (g_tree_nnodes(ttq->entries)) {
-		struct timerthread_queue_entry *ttqe = rtpe_g_tree_find_first(ttq->entries, NULL, NULL);
+		struct timerthread_queue_entry *ttqe = rtpe_g_tree_first(ttq->entries);
 		assert(ttqe != NULL);
 		g_tree_remove(ttq->entries, ttqe);
 
@@ -324,7 +324,7 @@ void timerthread_queue_push(struct timerthread_queue *ttq, struct timerthread_qu
 	// this hands over ownership of cp, so we must copy the timeval out
 	struct timeval tv_send = ttqe->when;
 	g_tree_insert(ttq->entries, ttqe, ttqe);
-	struct timerthread_queue_entry *first_ttqe = rtpe_g_tree_find_first(ttq->entries, NULL, NULL);
+	struct timerthread_queue_entry *first_ttqe = rtpe_g_tree_first(ttq->entries);
 	mutex_unlock(&ttq->lock);
 
 	// first packet in? we're probably not scheduled yet
@@ -366,7 +366,7 @@ void timerthread_queue_flush_data(void *ptr) {
 
         mutex_lock(&ttq->lock);
         while (g_tree_nnodes(ttq->entries)) {
-                struct timerthread_queue_entry *ttqe = rtpe_g_tree_find_first(ttq->entries, NULL, NULL);
+                struct timerthread_queue_entry *ttqe = rtpe_g_tree_first(ttq->entries);
                 assert(ttqe != NULL);
                 g_tree_remove(ttq->entries, ttqe);
 
diff --git a/lib/auxlib.h b/lib/auxlib.h
index 181603795..2c9284c1a 100644
--- a/lib/auxlib.h
+++ b/lib/auxlib.h
@@ -431,6 +431,9 @@ INLINE void *rtpe_g_tree_find_first(GTree *t, GEqualFunc f, void *data) {
 	g_tree_foreach(t, rtpe_tree_find_first_cmp, &h);
 	return h.out_p;
 }
+INLINE void *rtpe_g_tree_first(GTree *t) {
+	return rtpe_g_tree_find_first(t, NULL, NULL);
+}
 INLINE void rtpe_g_tree_find_all(GQueue *out, GTree *t, GEqualFunc f, void *data) {
 	struct rtpe_g_tree_find_helper h = {
 		.func = f,
diff --git a/recording-daemon/notify.c b/recording-daemon/notify.c
index 2dd201f42..dba575231 100644
--- a/recording-daemon/notify.c
+++ b/recording-daemon/notify.c
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ static void *notify_timer(void *p) {
 
 		// grab first entry in list, check retry time, sleep if it's in the future
 
-		struct notif_req *first = rtpe_g_tree_find_first(notify_timers, NULL, NULL);
+		struct notif_req *first = rtpe_g_tree_first(notify_timers);
 		if (!first) {
 			ilog(LOG_DEBUG, "No scheduled HTTP notification retries, sleeping");
 			pthread_cond_wait(&timer_cond, &timer_lock);