Play it on Monday morning before you open your email or messages. It takes two or three minutes. Keep a notepad nearby and, while it plays, write down the three things that matter most this week.
Read by Ivy
01It’s Monday, and the week hasn’t happened yet. I decide how its first hour goes.
02Three priorities for the week go on paper before I open my email.
03My inbox is other people’s requests. It doesn’t get to set my whole day.
04Real work comes first, while my mind is fresh.
05Email gets done in batches.
06Monday starts the week. Catching up can take longer than a morning.
07When something urgent lands, I check if it really is before I say yes.
08Not today is a fair answer. I can suggest a better time.
09A little space in the day for the unexpected. Mondays tend to bring some.
10One thing first. This week starts with me choosing where my attention goes.
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Why it’s written this way
Monday mornings tend to go wrong in the first ten minutes, when the inbox decides what the week is about. This loop is built to get in before that happens. It opens with the fact that the week hasn’t started yet, then asks you to name your three priorities before you read a single email.
The middle notes reframe the inbox as other people’s requests, which is simply what it is, and give you two practical habits: do one real piece of work first, and handle email in batches. The note about not catching up by lunchtime takes away a pressure many people put on themselves after a weekend.
The later notes help with the requests that arrive during the day: checking urgency, saying not today, leaving room for surprises. They are boundaries, not refusals. The loop ends on a calm start and on you choosing where your attention goes, which is the whole point of hearing it before you open your inbox.