Monday Focus Check, June 29, 2026
Jon here. It’s Monday and I checked my phone before my feet hit the floor this morning. 6:14am. Hadn’t even stood up yet, and I’d already read 4 emails I couldn’t do a single thing about until later. I’m literally writing this soon after and I still can’t do anything about those emails.
That’s how Monday starts for a lot of us. Awake for 90 seconds and already on somebody else’s agenda.
Your attention is the most valuable thing you own, and it’s getting stolen every second of every day. There are smart people and expensive systems built to grab it the second you give them an opening. First thing in the morning, half asleep, you hand it over for free. (I mean, I’ve maybe got some of yours now… and some of you, thankfully, PAY me for that! Maybe some others will too?!)
What you point your attention at in those first few minutes kind of sets the tone for the whole day. Point it at a glowing rectangle full of other people’s priorities, and you spend the day reacting to them. Point it on purpose, and you get to run your own day.
I’m not great at this, by the way. I fail at it plenty. (See above. 6:14.) But on the Mondays I get it right, the whole week runs different.
The one move
Pick the first thing your attention touches on Monday, and make it something you chose. Not the phone. It doesn’t have to be meditation or anything fancy. One rep so small you can’t fall off of it.
Mine is this (when I do it!). Before any screen, I name the one thing that has to go right this week. Out loud, usually in the kitchen while the coffee drips. Just one. Some weeks it’s a work deadline. Some weeks it’s “be patient with my kids.” (Let’s be honest… it’s that every week!) Saying it first means I’ve planted a flag before the inputs come for me.
20 seconds. That’s the whole practice. The phone can wait 20 seconds.
Try it tomorrow. Name the one thing before you touch a screen. See if the week feels even a little more like yours.
What’s the first thing your attention lands on when you wake up? Be honest, I read every reply.
Tomorrow’s Reset is about what to do when the day spikes you anyway and you feel yourself starting to react.