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I hope you’re beginning to find your rhythm in 2026 - not the rhythm the world demands from you but the quieter one that rises from somewhere deeper.

Some of you may have noticed that this newsletter wandered in a little later than usual. After a night of strange, symbolic dreams, I woke with the sense that the words I’d written weren’t quite the right ones. So I stepped away, breathed, listened and let the piece reshape itself in its own time.

It felt important to honour the very thing I’m always encouraging in others - to follow a more natural rhythm, to trust the pauses and to remember that productivity is not the measure of a life. If you’ve recently joined us, you can catch up with our journey here.

Even working for myself, I cling to the old ghosts of the invisible audience, the imagined judgement and the sense that someone is watching the clock.

But nobody is going to tell me off if I’m a little late with my newsletter and it’s reminded me that sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is step away from the desk and let the mind soften back into its wildness.

This season despite what our calendars insist is a time of rest and quiet tending. A time when the earth turns inward, when roots deepen and when nothing looks like it’s happening but everything is preparing. For most of human history, this was the season of conserving energy before the great unfurling of spring. That unfurling will come, it always does. SO let’s now rush things.

And perhaps that’s why I’ve been thinking so much about productivity - how it shapes us, how it traps us and how it pulls us away from the natural intelligence we carry in our soul.

I’ve been wondering when productivity became the goal. Everywhere I look, there’s talk of efficiency - faster, leaner, more automated, 10X! And AI is accelerating that mindset. It promises to optimise everything - our thinking, our decision‑making and even our sense of power.

But something about that feels off to me.

Microwave food is efficient, but I’d still rather eat a home‑cooked meal made with love, intention and creativity.

Technology can be wonderful, but if we don’t slow down enough to think for ourselves, it can push us toward outcomes we never consciously chose. Otherwise we’d all be eating Smash made by the Martians from the 1970s adverts. It’s a throwback to when marketers saw an opportunity to create food in packets, rather than from peeling a potato. Clever but ultimately pointless.

I believe humans are inherently good. We’re born wanting to create, connect and belong. Work can meet many of those needs, which is why so many of us feel unsettled when we start questioning our career choices. It’s not just a job, it’s identity, community and meaning.

I found some really interesting data about the modern office worker:

• 43% spend more than 10 hours a week on “performative work” - tasks that signal busyness rather than create value.

• A third of the average workday is lost to managing perception, navigating hierarchy or staying visible.

• And the average worker is truly productive for under 3 hours a day, not because they’re lazy, but because the system is designed around interruptions, expectations and constant signalling.

Does that reflect your experience? It certainly mirrors my time in the corporate world where there was lots of activity but often not much to truly show for it.

The business world loves efficiency. But somewhere along the way, it lost touch with effectiveness. And when we’re paid on the basis of the collective hallucination staying true, we don’t want to rock the boat.

Here’s a simple example. If I’m asked to send an email campaign, one measure of success is how quickly I can get it out the door. But if I understand the bigger picture, I might add far more value by saying, “Don’t bother, this isn’t the right audience.”

That’s the heart of a systems‑based approach - focusing on what we’re trying to achieve, not what looks good to others.

But many modern systems don’t want us to pause and question. Because if we did, we might see the pointlessness of some of the things we’re doing. It’s why, in corrupt societies, the first things to go are books, scholars and access to information.

I believe we need to welcome healthy disobedience. If we want people to drive change, they need to feel safe enough to challenge the status quo.

But an insecure HIPPO (Highest Paid Persons Opinion) won’t like that. They benefit from the hierarchy, so they cling to it.

I hope this doesn’t feel too heavy. In fact, I find it strangely hopeful, especially when we look at where AI is taking us.

AI has made all of us HIPPOs in our own lives. It’s a sycophantic voice that is incredibly efficient but it will never have true soul. It can keep us happy but only if our work never had much depth to begin with.

AI doesn’t get tired, it doesn’t need coffee, it can monitor keystrokes and track activity without blinking.

So maybe this is the moment to pause and ask: What does it mean to be human in a landscape obsessed with hyper‑productivity?

This image really resonates with me. It’s a reminder of what makes us human and part of nature. AI is faster, more productive and more efficient than us. If the goal is simply to save money, it can be a better worker than us.

But humans aren’t meant to be efficient machines. We’re meant to be effective, creative, intuitive, imperfect and relational.

Somewhere along the way, we attached our worth to appearing useful. We learned to perform busyness and we forgot how we do our best work.

In my corporate days, job security, bonuses and reputation depended on how well you managed your personal brand. People learned to fit in, mask their true personality and adapt to the prevailing culture. Success depended on keeping the HIPPO happy.

But when efficiency becomes the goal, we lose sight of effectiveness. We stop questioning, we stop imagining and we stop creating. We stop finding joy.

So next week I’ll be sharing details of our upcoming events where we will be focussing on what makes us human - not how quickly we can complete a CAPTCHA box :)

Until then, with compassion and curiosity,

Nick

Well that’s it for another week. But we don’t have to stop there.

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