Issue 68: Protect the Signal

ISSUE 68

7 JANUARY 2026 | READ ONLINE​

Hi Reader,

This week, I caught myself doing something that I hate to admit is becoming a bit too familiar.

I opened my laptop to write. And somehow, I ended up living inside everyone else’s priorities.

A reply here. A quick check there. A calendar shuffle. A tiny decision that became five more.

By the time I got back to my original thought, it had gone quiet. And it made me realize something:

It’s not always that we’re busy.

It’s that we’re being pulled.

Pulled by other people’s urgency. Pulled by the open loops, we can feel humming in the background. Pulled by the invisible pressure to prove we’re ‘on it’.

So here’s the question I want to offer you this week:

What’s pulling at you right now? And what would you like to protect instead?

Because attention is a resource, and right now it’s being rented out in five-minute increments (maybe less).

A Small Practice that Might Help

Here’s an idea for you, if you’re like me and finding yourself being pulled in all directions.

Once a day, choose one 45-minute block and call it focused work.

Before you begin, write two lines:

1. The one thing I’m here to move forward is: __________

2. The one thing I’m not available for, until it’s done is: __________

That second line is the fence. Or think of it as a boundary. Your brain relaxes when it knows what it can safely ignore.

Then, when you feel the reach for the next ping, the next tab, the next ‘just checking’, you don’t make it a moral issue.

You simply come back. Just like returning to the trail after stepping off for a moment.

So as you move through the week:

Name what’s pulling you.

Choose what you’ll protect.

And give your best thinking a clean place to land in.

​

Megan

If you want the Receipts (and a good rabbit hole)

Two studies I’ve bookmarked because they’re refreshingly honest about attention, and what actually helps:

• A one-week ‘turn off notifications’ intervention didn’t change checking/screen time (and didn’t magically fix digital well-being – I was surprised by this).
• ​Blocking mobile internet for two weeks improved sustained attention, mental health, and subjective well-being (yes, really).

And a 2025 book that frames this whole moment beautifully:

• Chris Hayes, The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource​

Quick Links

• Find My Book: Clarity in Chaos. Lead with Purpose in Disruptive Times.​
• Subscribe to my podcast with Andreza Araujo, the Headline Podcast.
• Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.

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