The first fifteen minutes of a quiet house are the only ones that are fully yours. Don’t hand them to your feed.

An empty house is a short-lived resource. Fifteen minutes where nobody needs anything is the only genuinely private part of some days, and it is remarkably easy to hand to a feed without noticing it has gone. Attention given away first thing tends not to come back for hours. Whatever happens in that window sets the tone of everything after it.

This week, when you get those minutes, decide what they are for before you pick up your phone. Eat properly, read, sit still, start the hard thing. Keep the phone for later, and see what the morning does differently.