Find your focus: how you start your day is how you live your life

Here’s what I’ve learned: if you don’t learn how to control your focus, your focus will control you. 

The way you start your day, the tone and intention you set, is the blueprint for how you live your life.

Here are some helpful strategies you can use to reclaim your attention, sharpen your focus, and show up in your life with purpose.

Every time you switch tasks, check your phone, scroll social media, or bounce between projects, your brain has to refocus. That’s called context switching. 

Studies show it takes an average of 23 minutes to fully regain focus after a distraction.

Twenty-three minutes! Multiply that by how many times you check your phone in a day… You see the problem?

It’s not that you don’t have enough time; it’s that you don’t have enough focus.  Your energy leaks out in a hundred tiny cuts, and by the end of the day, you’re exhausted but not productive.

And here’s the kicker, the people who need your best self, your kids, your partner, your team… yourself, are not getting it, because your attention is already spent.

So what’s the fix? You don’t need another app. 

You don’t need to GRIND harder. What you need is MINDFULNESS. 

And let me clear something up: mindfulness isn’t about sitting on a mountain top for an hour chanting ‘ohm.’ Mindfulness is simply the practice of noticing where your attention is, and choosing to bring it back into focus. 

One of the most powerful tools is using your breath to build focus, and the breathing technique is box breathing. 

Simple. Free. And it works. 

Here’s how it goes:

• Breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds. (Count down 4-3-2-1)
• Hold for 4 seconds. (count down 4-3-2-1)
• Breathe out through your mouth for 4 seconds. (count 4-3-2-1)
• Hold for 4 seconds. (count 4-3-2-1)

That’s one round. 

Do that for 4 cycles, and you’ll be amazed at how calm and centred you feel. 

It literally resets your entire nervous system.

The next time you’re feeling overwhelmed — kids screaming, work piling up, phone buzzing 

STOP. 

Find a quiet space. Close your eyes. Do 2 minutes of box breathing. 

Then return with focus. It’s a game-changer.

Set the Tone of Your Day

Focus isn’t just what you do in the middle of a packed schedule — it’s what you do at the start of the day.

How you start your day dictates how you live your life.

If you wake up and immediately grab your phone, guess what? 

You’ve trained your brain to be reactive. You’re already behind. You’re already on the defense.

Instead, start building a morning focus ritual if you haven’t already. 

It doesn’t need to be complicated. 

It doesn’t need to take an hour. But it does need to be intentional. 

Here’s an example:

• Hydrate first thing. Big glass of water or tea. Wake your system up.
• 2–5 minutes of mindfulness. This could be box breathing, journaling, or simply sitting in silence. (set a timer like I do). 
• Set your top 3 priorities for the day. Not 20. Not your whole to-do list. Just 3 things that, if you accomplish them, you’ll win the day.

Do this, and you’re not just reacting to life. You’re leading it.

Are you living with priorities, or just obligations?

Most live by obligations. They wake up and go straight into reacting — emails, texts, kids, coworkers, problems. 

They spend their entire day putting out fires and reacting.

But high performers? They live by priorities. They decide, this is what matters today. This is what I’m focusing on.

Obligations will always exist. You can’t ignore your job, your kids, your bills. But when you live by priorities, those obligations don’t own you. You show up to them with clarity.

So ask yourself right now: what’s one thing you can stop doing that drains your focus? 

And what’s one thing you can commit to daily that sharpens it? 

That’s where you start.

Focus isn’t about getting more done. It’s about doing what matters most, with your full presence and attention. 

Your attention is your most valuable currency. 

Don’t give it away to every notification, every distraction, every shiny object. 

Train your focus like you train your muscles. Daily and Intentionally.

Remember:

• Mindfulness resets your brain.
• Box breathing grounds your body.
• Morning rituals set your tone.
• Priorities, not obligations, drive your life.

If you start your day with focus, you’ll live your life with focus.

So tomorrow morning, before you grab your phone, pause. Breathe. 

Choose your priorities. And step into the day with intention.

That’s how you reclaim your focus. 

That’s how you take back control. And that’s how you lead yourself — and the people counting on you — to a better life.
 

Focus is a skill, and like any skill, you can train it. Start today.

Stay healthy,