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Ever heard of the term T Shaped?

My boss used to tell us we needed to be more T shaped in our careers. But what did he mean by this and why is that now a very dangerous way to approach your life?

Ok, so a quick explainer of the T Shaped approach. Think of the downward part of the T as you going deep on a subject. It really could be anything - medicine, spreadsheets or gardening - this is your deep knowledge built up through education, reading and taking part in the real world.

The top horizontal bar is your breadth of knowledge. These are the things you can talk about at a dinner party but very quickly run into trouble when there’s an actual expert in the room! Ouch. But it is very valuable none the less. The breadth allows you to join dots from your central discipline into other areas - these people are really valuable to an organisation. Ten years ago I would say do that. Definitely try and get into that position.

But why is this model dangerous?

Well, I don’t need to tell you the world is changing very fast. Your central pillar of your T might be relevant today but it is very possible that tomorrow it will be useless. Think about having serious domain knowledge of being a blacksmith - great until the car came along.

The difference with those poor blacksmiths was they had 20-30 years to retrain before cars properly took over and the horses just became a rich person’s accessory. These days? Well, you might have a week!

But even retraining isn’t good enough. Let’s assume you’ve learned how to mend car engines - OVERNIGHT - well done you! I’m genuinely impressed. The only thing is that a week later, electric cars have made the petrol engine redundant. And off you go again - a new skill to learn.

By this time you aren’t getting much sleep. That learning is relentless. So what can we do?

We need to rethink how we see the world and adopt the M shape.

The M immediately feels more secure. Three downward pillars of solid domain knowledge feels much more stable. If one gets knocked out, you still have two pillars to fall back on.

But hang on one minute. If you could actually gain three pillars of domain knowledge you are probably some kind of genius or someone with endless time to learn this stuff or both. And the thing is, AI is probably coming for your other two pillars while we speak.

And of course, with the touch of a button you can now access the whole breadth of human knowledge and AI will package it up for you instantly, at any level you need.

So that’s not going to work either.

So what should the legs of your M actually be?

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For many people, the hardest part of the day isn’t the day at all.

Actually, for me I’m fine actually going to sleep when my head hits the pillow. The problem arrises if I wake between 2am and 5 am. That’s the danger zone for me.

A problem that was manageable at 4pm feels insurmountable at 3am. Work tasks that usually sit well within your abilities suddenly feel out of reach. Small things start to feel like big things. And if it happens night after night, a downward spiral can begin that is genuinely hard to escape.

I came across a quote a while back:

The same applies to sleep. You don’t need to solve everything. You just need to find one thing that gives you enough space to sleep, so that you can wake up and face things from a better place.

What follows is a collection of things that work for me. Not all of them will work for you. But something here might.

In this post I cover:

1. The Countdown Method

2. The Notebook

3. Getting out of the room

4. The Environment

5. Your Phone!

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The Countdown method

About eighteen months ago, I discovered a breathing and counting technique that has, gradually, become something of a personal superpower.

Here’s how it works:

1. Get into your normal sleep position.

2. Place the number 26 in your mind.

3. Take a slow, deep breath in, holding the number in your head.

4. Hold your breath for two seconds.

5. Then breathe out, slowly.

6. When you’ve breathed out fully, drop to 25.

7. Breathe in again.

8. Hold.

9. Breathe out.

10. Then 24.

11. Repeat, going down one number at a time.

I have never got below 5. I have fallen asleep every single time, and I have never once been able to remember which number I drifted off on.

You might want to ask “why 26?”. Well, sometimes more random numbers are easier to remember. Nothing more scientific than that I’m afraid.

Why does this work?

There is a reason this works, and it goes beyond relaxation. When you pair slow, controlled breathing with a simple counting task, two things happen simultaneously. Physiologically, deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system which directly counters the fight-or-flight response keeping you awake. The brain is, at its core, a pattern-recognition machine. When you give it a pattern to follow, it pays attention, and this immediately calms the central nervous system.

Cognitively, the counting acts as what researchers call an anchor. Focused attention on breathing activates the prefrontal cortex while calming the amygdala, the brain’s alarm centre. Your anxious thoughts aren’t suppressed exactly; they’re simply crowded out by something else. Something simple. Something that requires just enough attention to prevent your mind from spiralling, but not so much that it keeps you awake.

That’s the elegant part. The technique demands concentration, but not effort.

The notebook by the bed

Sometimes the reason you can’t sleep isn’t formless anxiety. It’s that you have too many actual thoughts. Things you’re afraid you’ll forget. Tasks you need to remember. Things unsaid. Your brain is trying to hold on to them, because it doesn’t trust that they’ll still be there in the morning.

Write it down. Get it out of your head and onto the page. Once it’s there, your mind knows it’s safe. It doesn’t need to keep cycling through the thought. You can let it go.

There’s something else worth saying here. The things that feel enormous at 1am rarely feel the same at 7am. Morning is a better time to deal with most problems. You’re rested, you have perspective, and the notebook is there waiting for you with everything written down. That cycle of offloading at night and processing in the morning becomes a genuinely useful habit over time.

Leave the room

If you’ve been lying awake for a while and the techniques aren’t landing, try this: get up.

1. Go downstairs.

2. Walk around.

3. Tidy something small.

4. Then come back to bed.

This sounds counterintuitive, but it works as a reset. You’re breaking the association between lying in bed and feeling frustrated. When you return, you’re starting fresh.

The environment

Before you even get into bed, your bedroom is either working for you or against you.

Most sleep experts agree that the optimal room temperature is between 15 and 19 degrees Celsius. The reason is physiological: about two hours before bedtime, the body naturally begins to cool down, signalling that it’s time to sleep. A warm room fights against this process. A cool room supports it. If you can sleep with a window open and let fresh air move through the room, that’s better still.

We’ve trained ourselves into this over the years. It felt strange at first. Now it’s just how we sleep.

Darkness matters too. At this time of year in the UK, dawn can arrive before 4am in some parts of the country.

The phone doesn’t belong in the bedroom

This one I feel strongly about.

My phone charges overnight in the kitchen. Not on my bedside table. Not face-down on the floor. In the kitchen, out of the room, out of reach. If I need an alarm, I use an alarm clock designed for that purpose.

This means I’m not tempted to scroll before bed. It means I can read instead, which is a far better way to settle the mind. And it means that when I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is get up and go downstairs which is a genuinely better way to start the day, rather than lying in bed absorbing emails before I’ve even had a glass of water.

More on water intake in a future post…..

One last thought

None of what I’ve written here is radical. A lot of it is straightforward, even obvious. But there’s a difference between knowing something and actually doing it consistently.

The night is the hardest part of the day for a lot of people. It doesn’t have to be. Pick one thing from this list. Try it for a week. See if it shifts anything.

You might be surprised which number you fall asleep on.

If you know someone who you think might benefit from this please feel free to forward on. I’ve added big red button to help you here. Thanks!

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Here’s a good podcast to listen to this week….

In the week that social media has been labelled in the same danger category as smoking here’s a sobering discussion about what your phone is doing to your brain.

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Enjoy - and have a great week!

Half an hour to reset your team….

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There’s a moment in every team’s year where things start to drift. The energy dips, a change is coming, or you’ve just lost the thread a little. You know the feeling. And as the person leading the team, you’re trying to work out how to get things back on track without it feeling forced.

Here’s something I’ve used a couple of times with my own team, and it’s worked really, really well. It takes about half an hour. You don’t need any special technology. And it gives you and your team a genuine reset.

It’s called Hopes, Fears and Ideas.

Why this works

The thing about change, or even just a tough stretch, is that people are carrying things around in their heads that they haven’t said out loud. Worries. Excitement. Ideas they haven’t felt able to share. This exercise gives them a structure to get all of that out in the open, and it gives you as the leader a really clear picture of where your team actually are, not where you assume they are.

So where do you start…?

You don’t need a lot. A Microsoft Form, a Google Form, or just a piece of paper divided into three sections. Three questions. Two minutes each.

What are your hopes?

Start here. It’s a positive place to begin, and that matters. If your team are approaching something with a bit of trepidation, starting with the good stuff helps frame the whole conversation differently. What are people looking forward to? What are they excited might happen? What new experiences or skills might come out of this?

When we did this in my team, people talked about getting involved in some new reporting work, learning new tools, getting out of the day-to-day Excel grind. That’s real energy, and it’s worth surfacing early.

What are your fears?

There’s always fear with change. And the mistake is to avoid talking about it, because then it just sits there. Get it out on paper. When you go through it with the team, some fears will be straightforward to address. You might know something they don’t. A misunderstanding can be cleared up really quickly once it’s in the open.

In one of ours, the team was worried that another team was going to start doing what we were doing and take some of our remit. It was an easy one to address, because I knew exactly what brief the other team had been given, and it was completely different. That conversation took two minutes and put the worry to bed.

Some fears you won’t be able to fix straight away, and that’s fine. What you do get is awareness. You know where the nerves are, so you can keep an eye on them, keep the conversations going, and not let things fester.

What are your ideas?

This is the one that’s easy to skip and really shouldn’t be. The whole point of this question is agency. Change can feel like something being done to people rather than something they’re part of. Asking for ideas changes that dynamic.

Your team know the job really well. Probably better than you do in some areas. They’ll spot things you haven’t thought of. When we ran this exercise, one of the ideas that came out was about how we ran our fortnightly team meeting, which had got a bit stale. The suggestion was that each meeting should be taken over by one of the sub teams, who’d bring their own energy and do something a bit different. Because there were four or five sub-teams, each one was only doing it every ten or twelve weeks, which meant they could really put something into it when they did. It was a genuinely good idea, and it came directly out of this session.

Two ways to run it

1. You can do it as a survey first, pull the answers together, and then get the team together to discuss what came up. That works really well if you want to give people time to think, or if the topics might be sensitive.

2. Or you can just do it live in a meeting, off the cuff. Hand everyone a piece of paper. Two minutes on hopes, two minutes on fears, two minutes on ideas. Then spend the next fifteen or twenty minutes just talking through what people have written. You’ll get some really good conversations out of it, and the structure stops it from going in circles.

The reason I keep coming back to this is that it’s simple enough to actually do, but rich enough to surface things that really matter. It’s not a big process. It doesn’t need a consultant. You can run it yourself, with your own team, this week if you wanted to.

Hopes, fears, ideas. Half an hour. It’s worth it.

So what do you think? Will you give this a try?

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Five toolkits to use when you’re feeling overwhelmed and everything appears chaotic

There are moments in work and life when everything feels like it is moving at once. You are spinning up one project, closing down another, dealing with shifting priorities, navigating people dynamics, and trying to stay on top of everything else that keeps arriving in your inbox. It can feel like you are running through fog. You cannot see the edges of anything. You cannot quite work out what is important. You know you need to move, but you are not sure where to place your foot.

Over the last few months, life has been full of these moments. We are deep in the design work for the Department for Transport Operator transition, which alone brings enough complexity to fill anyone’s week. We are managing several national marketing workstreams. Questions from stakeholders arrive constantly. Priorities change before you have finished your previous thought. Team members need direction and support while they themselves are juggling uncertainty.

It has been a lot. And like anyone, I have my early-warning signs when the load is creeping up. For me, it is a 5am wake-up. I do not set an alarm for that time, but when I open my eyes at five on the dot and my mind starts churning through everything that needs attention, I know my head is holding too much. I know I have crossed the line into overwhelm.

It happened recently. I woke up early, wide awake, mind spinning. I could feel the weight of everything sitting in my head. I tried to run through it mentally, but all that did was make the fog thicker. So I got up, made a cup of tea, sat at the kitchen table, and pulled out a sheet of paper. I started writing. Everything. Questions, assumptions, decisions, names, risks, actions, deadlines. It looked messy and unstructured, but as I wrote, something shifted.

The fog started to lift. Thoughts that had been tangled began to separate. Patterns emerged. Priorities became clearer. I circled a few areas that needed attention. I drew arrows between connected ideas. I marked a few items that had been bothering me for days without me realising why. I could feel the pressure dropping. I could almost feel space returning in my mind.

That moment reminded me of something I have learned over and over again. Uncertainty is unavoidable. Chaos is not. When things feel overwhelming, the instinct is often to act quickly to relieve the tension. But acting before thinking usually sets you back. It creates rework. It keeps everything in your head. It stops you seeing the shape of the real problem.

There is another way. And over the years, through franchise bids, industry projects, leadership roles, transitions, and messy team challenges, I have developed a set of practical toolkits that help me turn uncertainty into something I can work with. They help me pause. They help me organise my thinking. They help me stay calm under pressure. And I want to share them with you, because we are all navigating more uncertainty than ever. Most people think uncertainty is chaos. But you can learn to approach it differently.

Here are the five toolkits I come back to again and again.

Toolkit 1: Your North Star

When you face something ambiguous, the temptation is to dive into activity. Open a spreadsheet. Start a deck. Call a meeting. Write down some numbers. Create a plan. Movement feels like progress. It soothes the discomfort of not knowing what to do next.

But the most useful thing you can do at the start is pause and define your purpose. Not a vague statement. Not a bundle of jargon. A clear, plain-English answer to four simple questions:

What problem are we trying to solve
Why does it matter
Who cares about it most
What would success look like

When I run sessions with teams, we often spend the longest time on the one-sentence purpose statement. It is usually the hardest sentence you will write all week. But once you have it, everything becomes easier. It guides decisions. It tells you what to ignore. It helps you communicate. It becomes the point everyone can return to when things start to drift.

Testing your North Star with others is essential. People often hold different assumptions about the work without realising it. A five-minute conversation can save five weeks of confusion. When you show someone your one-sentence purpose, you quickly see whether you are aligned or not. When there is alignment, the whole project becomes easier. When there is not, it is better to discover it early.

Uncertainty becomes manageable once the purpose is clear. Without it, everything feels heavier than it needs to.

Toolkit 2: Chunk It Up

Uncertainty overwhelms because your brain tries to hold too many open loops at the same time. That is simply how humans work. Cognitive Load Theory explains that working memory has strict limits. If you try to hold more than a handful of ideas at once, your clarity collapses. You cannot reason well. You cannot prioritise. You cannot move.

The quickest way to regain control is to get everything out of your head.

Mind maps are my favourite tool here. Write the project or problem in the centre of a page, then let everything spill out. Questions. People. Dependencies. Ideas. Deadlines. Risks. Unknowns. Complaints. Whatever is floating around. You do not need to organise anything yet. The act of externalising your thoughts has its own value.

Once everything is visible, you can begin to shape it. Circle items that feel important. Highlight things that are unclear. Group related ideas using colours. Draw lines between connected thoughts. Your mind stops screaming when the page starts working. Patterns appear that were impossible to see before. You notice small areas of clarity that can become starting points. You see which gaps you are actually dealing with.

Chunking also helps you identify what you can do alone, what requires others, and what can wait. You can build a simple action list based on clusters rather than guesswork. You no longer feel pulled in ten directions. You feel grounded.

Overwhelm thrives in the unspoken and unwritten. Once things move onto the page, overwhelm loses its power.

Toolkit 3: The Known Unknowns

Clarity does not magically appear when you write everything down. It appears when you start to separate facts from assumptions and assumptions from genuine unknowns.

I have seen this most clearly during franchise bidding work. You get a long-form report that outlines the basic state of the business, but the richness that the on-the-ground teams hold is missing. You cannot see the full story. You do not know all the drivers of revenue. You do not know what is happening in local markets. You do not know what is normal for that operation and what is a temporary quirk.

So you build scaffolding. You write down what you know. You write down what you do not know. Then you write the assumptions you are treating as true for the sake of progress. You check those assumptions with senior leaders. You test whether they are reasonable. You check if they support a coherent story.

Most people are reluctant to make assumptions explicit. They worry it will expose uncertainty. But the opposite is true. When assumptions sit in your head, they become invisible traps. When you put them on the page, they become tools you can use. You can test them. You can share them. You can change them.

Known Unknowns tables are simple. Three columns:

What we know
What we assume
What we need to find out

That is enough to start moving. And when you revisit those assumptions as the work evolves, you prevent rework later. You avoid painful course corrections. You stay aligned with reality instead of drifting away from it.

It is surprising what you discover when you write down your assumptions. You often realise you have been working on the basis of hope rather than fact. That realisation alone can save you an enormous amount of work.

Toolkit 4: Find Your People

Most problems become solvable once you find the right people to speak to. And most people only realise this after they have spent hours trying to do everything alone.

Your network is not a political tool. It is an efficiency tool. It gives you access to ideas, context, shortcuts, historical knowledge, risks, hidden pitfalls, lessons learned, and people who have solved similar problems before.

When I start something new, I map out the people around it. There are informers who hold the technical detail. There are influencers who shape decisions. There are approvers who sign things off. And there are the fast informers. These are the people who can give you eighty percent clarity quickly. These people are worth their weight in gold.

You build this network long before you need it. Short conversations. Coffee-roulette meetings. Asking what people are working on. Offering help when you can. Sharing what you know. Noticing who has good judgment. Paying attention to who is well connected. When you build trust in calm times, it becomes easier to navigate uncertainty in difficult times.

There is also a seasonal opportunity hidden in plain sight. A Christmas party is one of the easiest places to start building your network. No agenda. No expectations. No pressure. Speak to people you rarely see. Ask one or two useful questions. Learn what matters to them. If you build connections now, you will feel the benefit all year.

Networks reduce uncertainty because they reduce isolation. And nothing accelerates clarity like a twenty-minute conversation with the right person.

Toolkit 5: Plan, Test, Learn, Adjust

Once you have your purpose, your thoughts, your assumptions, and your people, you need to start moving. But the goal is not to create the perfect plan. The goal is to create a sensible first draft quickly and put it in front of others.

I call this Version 0.1 planning. It has just enough structure to show the shape of the work. It outlines the main steps, the owners, and a rough timeline. It is not polished. It is not detailed. It is an invitation for feedback. And that is what makes it powerful.

People often resist sharing early, because they fear criticism. But sharing early is an insurance policy. It exposes blind spots. It reveals misalignment. It saves effort. And it gives other people confidence that the work is moving in a thought-through direction.

I also keep a short learning log. Nothing elaborate. Just a few notes each week on what has changed, why it has changed, and what we have learned. This stops uncertainty from accumulating and turning into frustration. It helps you stay connected to the logic of your own decisions.

Weekly reflection keeps you honest. What is clearer now What is still fuzzy What needs to change next These are grounding questions that stop you drifting.

Clarity comes from movement. But not reckless movement. Informed movement. Small steps. Regular checks. Open conversations. A willingness to adjust.

Try This Today

You can start small. You do not need to overhaul everything at once. Here are two simple steps to make your week easier.

One. Pick one moment this week to build your network.
The Christmas party is an ideal place to start. Speak to one person you rarely talk to. Ask what they are working on next year. Notice who knows what. You are building your fast informers list without any pressure.

Two. Before you take action on anything that feels unclear, pause for five minutes.
Write down what you know. Write down what you do not know. Notice what assumptions you are making. Pick one next step. That alone will give you more clarity than most teams create in a week.

Final Thoughts

Uncertainty is a fact of modern work. But feeling overwhelmed does not have to be. You can build habits that give you clarity when others are struggling. You can learn to recognise your internal triggers and respond before the pressure builds. You can build networks that support you. You can turn complexity into something you can handle. And you can move with confidence even when the path ahead is not fully visible.

Pause, think, write down what you know and what you do not know before taking action.

And if you recognise your own overwhelm triggers, I would love to hear them - dive into the comments and let us know.

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Do you wake early Is it a physical feeling Does your attention slip Do you get irritable Or does everything just feel heavy

Someone else reading this will benefit from your insight.

If you want to keep reading….

A Morning Check-In That Actually Works When Life Speeds Up

There is a strange tension in the weeks before Christmas.

On the surface, it is meant to be a golden stretch of the year. Lights in windows, end of year drinks, school concerts, Christmas markets, all of that. Yet underneath, for a lot of people, this is the time when work builds to a crescendo, diaries fill up, and life feels like it is moving a little too fast.

I feel it most in the mornings.

The alarm goes, it is still dark, and that quiet window between waking up and starting work feels like it shrinks a little more every day. I want to get outside, to run or walk or at least see some daylight, but sunrise is late, the garden is muddy, and the pressure of the day is already at my shoulder telling me to get to my desk.

For years, this period between late November and Christmas has been the hardest part of the year for my mind.

When the mornings started to run me

I used to imagine some mythical version of myself who would glide through this season.

He would get up early, have a reflective coffee, move his body, write a few wise words in a journal, then step calmly into the day, unflustered and perfectly prepared. That person stayed mythical.

What actually happened was more familiar. The alarm would go off, I would check my phone, see a work email, think about everything that needed doing, and the day would be underway before I had really arrived in it.

I knew journaling could help. I had read the articles, listened to the podcasts, heard all the talk about reflection, gratitude and intention. I even bought the fancy notebook that was supposed to unlock everything. You know the one. Thick paper, satisfying cover, the sort of notebook that whispers “you are going to do deep work in me”.

Then I would open it, stare at the blank page and feel nothing but resistance.

It felt like I had to conjure something profound out of thin air. I did not know where to start. On the days when I did write, I would keep it up for a few days, then miss one, then another. The notebook would quietly migrate to a shelf. By the time January arrived, the habit was gone and the guilt had arrived in its place.

So I assumed I was simply one of those people who journaling did not work for.

The winter problem

Over time I realised there were two separate things going on.

The first was the season itself. I like being outside. I like light. I find it easier to think clearly when I have stood in the garden for five minutes or gone for a quick walk before work. In this time of year, that becomes harder. It is dark, cold and very often wet. The garden feels like a mud bath. By the time the sun is reasonably up, the laptop is on and the day has started.

The second was the mental noise.

In my job, we are on the cusp of quite a big change for the rail industry. There are many moving parts. I do not think there is a single person who can see the whole thing end to end. Everyone has a slice of the picture. That sort of environment easily creates a sense of background unease. You know something significant is coming, you know it will touch every part of the system, but you do not have a neat story for how it all lands.

That combination, short dark days and long complex problems, is a fertile ground for rumination.

Looking back, I can see that my mornings were not just busy on the outside. They were busy inside my head as well. I was starting each day with other people’s requests, shifting priorities, unanswered questions and a growing sense that life was speeding up while I was still tying my shoes.

What I did not have was a simple way to check in with my own mind before the day got hold of me.

Why the blank page was never going to work

The breakthrough, when it finally came, was embarrassingly simple.

I realised that my problem was not journaling itself. It was the format.

A blank page feels like freedom to some people. To me, at that time of day, it felt like pressure. I was asking my half awake brain to create a coherent essay on my inner life before I had even had breakfast.

No wonder I avoided it.

What I actually needed was constraints. Fewer choices, fewer decisions, less pressure to perform. A small set of questions that would do the heavy lifting for me and give my mind something solid to lean on.

That is when I came across the idea of using the same three prompts every morning.

Three questions. No more. Always the same. Answered in a couple of lines each.

It sounded almost too basic. Surely that could not make a real difference. Then I tried it properly, not as a one off experiment, but as something I committed to for a few weeks.

That is when things started to shift.

The three questions that changed my winter

Here are the three questions I use each morning.

What is the most important thing I need to do today?
What am I grateful for in my life?
What quality do I want to show the world today?

On the surface these look straightforward. You can probably predict the sort of answers you might write.

The power is not in writing a perfect answer. The power is in the act of answering, consistently, before the world gets hold of you.

The first question cuts through the noise. Work and life both produce long lists. Messages, tasks, requests, worries, half finished thoughts, all swirling together. When you sit down and calmly write the one thing that really matters today, you reclaim some control. You are choosing the lens you will look through, rather than letting the day choose it for you.

The second question shifts the emotional tone. The person you talk to most in your life is yourself. That inner voice can be quietly corrosive if you leave it unchecked. When you ask “What am I grateful for in my life?” you are deliberately nudging that voice to notice what is still good, solid, present. It does not need to be big. Some mornings my answer is genuinely as small as “I am grateful that there is coffee in the cupboard” or “I am grateful that I get to walk my daughter to school.” The smallness does not matter. The direction does.

The third question is about how you want to show up. I like it because it reminds me that I have agency. Even on days when I have very little control over the events, I still have some control over the quality I bring. Some mornings I write “calm”. Some mornings it is “kind”. Some mornings it is “decisive”. There was a recent morning where I wrote, honestly, “I want to show that I am a positive person, but I am struggling today.” That honesty mattered too.

Over time, patterns emerge. You notice that you often choose the same quality. You see that what you are grateful for changes with the season. You start to recognise the difference between days when you picked a clear most important thing, and days when you tried to squeeze three things into that space and ended up moving none of them.

Most of all, you start the day feeling like you have arrived in it on purpose.

You have taken three or four minutes to ask yourself what matters, what is already good, and who you want to be today. That may not change everything that happens, but it changes your footing. You are stepping into the day with your eyes open, not tumbling into it by accident.

So far, this could be enough. You could stop here and still get a lot of value. If you want to keep this as a private pen and paper routine, it will still serve you.

What I have found, though, is that there is a way to take this further, especially in a season where life is accelerating and the stakes feel high.

That is where the paid section of this post comes in.

What you will unlock in the paid section

If you decide to read on as a paid subscriber, here is what you will get.

You will see why these three questions work so well from the point of view of your brain and your habits, and why they are particularly well suited to winter and to busy minds.

You will get a clear way to turn this into a routine that actually sticks, without relying on January motivation or unrealistic new year promises.

You will see how I combine journaling with AI as a sort of reflective partner on difficult days, so that I can process the complexity of work, get perspective on tricky situations, and stop problems from expanding in my head.

Most importantly, you will get a premium Morning Check-In Prompt you can copy and paste into your AI tool of choice each day. It will guide you through the three questions, help you dig a little deeper into what you write, and then summarise your reflections into a short, motivational note you can carry into the day.

If you want to feel more grounded, more focused and more in charge of your mornings, particularly in these short, busy weeks, the next part of this piece will give you a practical system you can start tomorrow.

Why these three questions work so well

Let us look under the surface for a moment.

When you answer “What is the most important thing I need to do today?”, you are doing something your brain finds surprisingly hard when you are stressed. You are prioritising. Under pressure, the mind tends to flatten everything. Every email feels urgent, every request feels equally important, and the result is a vague sense of being chased by your own to do list.

By forcing yourself to pick one thing, you are quietly training the part of your brain that separates signal from noise. You are reminding yourself that not all tasks are equal and that your time and energy should not be spread as if they are.

The gratitude question works on a different level.

Read more

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How to turn any meeting transcript into your own private leadership coach

You’re bouncing from one meeting to the next.
You barely have time to think, let alone reflect.
There’s no corridor chat, no debrief, no mentor leaning over to quietly say:

“Next time, try this.”

Remote work killed that kind of learning.
Now we just hit “Leave,” take a breath, and jump straight into the next call.

But the meeting transcript is there in the background ready to help you.
It remembered everything you said, everything you didn’t say, and every moment where you showed up brilliantly or faded into the background.

And when you combine that transcript with AI, something fascinating happens:

You finally see how you actually showed up - not how you felt you showed up.

It becomes your calm, honest, unembarrassed mentor.
The one who spots your patterns with perfect memory and zero judgement.

Your personal mentor is already waiting in the wings.

Here’s the system I use plus and the exact prompts to turn any meeting transcript into a private leadership coaching session.

Plus you get the bonus prompt that will help you become better at chairing meetings.

Below you will find:

1. Why memory-based reflection doesn’t work

2. Why transcripts fix this

3. The Workflow: How to coach yourself with every meeting

4. The Meeting Transcript Leadership Coach Prompt

5. What AI spots that humans miss

6. Bonus Prompt: The Chairperson Performance Coach

7. A Mini Example (just enough to show the power)

8. The mindset shift

9. Your challenge to get you started right now

IMPORTANT: You must gain permission from others in the meeting before turning transcription on.
And only use your company approved AI systems - for most this will be MS Copilot.

1. Why memory-based reflection doesn’t work

If you rely on your memory to understand how you behaved in a meeting, you’re relying on one of the most error-prone tools humans have.

Your memory:

• smooths over awkward bits

• forgets key details

• rewrites tone

• exaggerates the moments that felt emotional

• deletes the bits that felt mundane

Which means you leave with a feeling, not a diagnosis.

That’s why so many people think:

• “I barely spoke,” when they actually dominated.

• “I explained that clearly,” when they explained it three times.

• “That meeting went fine,” when others left confused.

A transcript doesn’t lie.
It reflects you back with accuracy you’ve never had access to.

2. Why transcripts fix this

Transcripts show:

• who spoke first

• who spoke last

• who interrupted

• who repeated themselves

• where the energy dropped

• where the room shifted

• where clarity strengthened or collapsed

They reveal:

• patterns

• timing

• tone

• silence

• dominance

• hesitations

• closures

• missed opportunities

You don’t get this from memory.
You don’t get this even from most human managers.

But AI sees it instantly.

3. The Workflow: How to coach yourself with every meeting

Here’s the process I use:

Step 1 — Get the transcript
Teams, Zoom, Meet — all offer transcripts or captions you can export.

Step 2 — Paste it into your AI (for most at work this will be MS Copilot)
Drop the raw text straight in.

Step 3 — Run the prompt (below)
This is where the magic happens.

Step 4 — Review the scorecard
Leadership presence, influence, clarity, collaboration, reputation impact.

Step 5 — Pull out 1–2 behaviours to change next time
Not ten.
Not everything.
Just the small levers that make the biggest difference.

Step 6 — Track patterns over a few weeks
You’ll start to see themes emerge i.e. the real “you” in meetings.

This becomes the kind of mentoring people used to get in the office.
Except it’s private, instant, and objective.

4. The Meeting Transcript Leadership Coach Prompt

(Copy, paste, use immediately)

PROMPT:

You are my private leadership coach.
Analyse the entire transcript using these lenses:

Leadership Presence
How did I come across?
Did I speak at the right moments?
Did my tone project calm authority or reactive energy?

Influence & Impact
Did I shape the direction of the meeting?
Were my contributions sharp, timely, and useful?
Did others respond to me as a leader?

Clarity & Communication
Was I concise or repetitive?
Were my explanations crisp?
Did I overtalk or leave important gaps?

Support & Collaboration
Did I elevate colleagues?
Did I help the group make progress?
Did I protect psychological safety?

Reputation Building
What would senior leaders infer from my behaviour?
Did I show behaviours expected of the next level?

Then provide:
A 10-point score for each category
What I did well
What I should improve
One behaviour to change tomorrow
One sentence summarising how I came across overall

5. What AI spots that humans miss

Here are real patterns AI has surfaced for me:

A. Repetition without impact

I said the same point twice, sometimes three times, when everyone got it the first time.
AI flagged it.
I fixed it.

B. Interesting discussions with no actions

I’d dive into stimulating conversation…
…then fail to close with ownership and next steps.

AI caught it every time.

C. My strengths — the ones I overlook

AI told me I:

• stay calm under pressure

• create safety for others to speak

• wait for the right moment

• naturally follow the “leader speaks last” principle

These weren’t accidents.
They were strengths.
It helped me double down on them.

You don’t often get that kind of balance from a human manager.
AI gives it consistently.

6. Bonus Prompt: The Chairperson Performance Coach

PROMPT:

From this transcript:

Identify who chaired the meeting: [person name].

Assess how effective their chairing was using:
clarity
structure
control of airtime
psychological safety
closing and action-setting

Highlight the strongest and weakest facilitation behaviours.
Give 3 improvements they could make next time.
Rewrite one key moment showing how they could have handled it better.

(This one is extremely powerful for anyone stepping into senior roles.)

7. A Mini Example (just enough to show the power)

Here’s a simple rewrite AI gave me recently:

Before:
“Well, there are a few things we could look at… we might want to explore X… we could potentially… I guess the main thing is…”

After:
“Here’s what we’ll do:
Janny will take the lead on X and report back by Wednesday.
I’ll handle Y.
We’ll regroup next Friday to confirm progress.”

That tiny shift had a huge effect on how the room perceived the direction I wanted.

8. The mindset shift

This is the real upgrade:

AI becomes your shadow mentor.

It sees you clearly.
It remembers everything.
It gives you the honest feedback no one else has the time or the courage to give you.

Most people drift through hundreds of meetings without ever learning from them.

You don’t have to.

9. Your challenge

Run the prompt on one meeting this week.

Just one.

See what it reflects back.
See what it reveals.
See which version of you walks into the next meeting.

Think you could use this?

Anyone you know who might benefit? Please feel free to share this.

Share

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How your inner voice shapes the world you see

It’s 3pm on a Friday.
You’re tired. You’ve been firefighting all week. Your inbox is a bit of a disaster.

And then a Teams message pops up:

“Do you know where the report from last week is?”

In a calm moment, this is nothing.
A simple question. Something you’d answer in ten seconds and move on.

But when you’re stressed, it hits differently.

Suddenly you’re reading it like this….

“Do you know where the report from last week is?”
(Because you clearly forgot. Again.)

Or even:
“Do you know where the report from last week is?”
(Because I’ve checked everywhere and you’re useless.)

Or the nuclear version:
“Do you know where the report from last week is?”
(Because you never sent it. Because you don’t care. Because you’re dropping the ball.)

Same words.
Three wildly different tones.
And the tone you hear has nothing to do with them — and everything to do with you.

The stress spiral no one talks about

When you’ve had a long week and your energy is low, you’re more likely to interpret neutral messages as negative ones.
It’s not weakness.
It’s not poor resilience.

It’s literally how the brain works.

Harvard research shows we’re wired to look for potential threats.
It kept us alive thousands of years ago - but now it just makes email feel like emotional sudoku.

And UCL research confirms this:
people under stress consistently misread neutral text as negative.

That means the message isn’t the problem.
Your internal state is.

This is why one extra Teams ping on a Friday afternoon can tip you into a spiral.
Not because the world is against you, but because your inner voice has slipped into the harshest possible tone.

The biggest misconception

Many people believe their self-talk is simply a reaction to what the world has “done” to them that week.

The truth is harder to accept but liberating once you see it:

You’re not reacting to reality.
You’re reacting to your interpretation of reality.

The world will always do what the world does.
You choose the voice you listen to.

Once you realise that, you stop feeling like a victim of circumstance and start feeling in control again.

Tone has always shaped outcomes - even in world events

This isn’t a new problem created by Slack, Teams, and email.
Humans have been misreading each other for centuries. Sometimes with enormous consequences.

1. The Cuban Missile Crisis letters

During the crisis, the Soviets sent two letters to the U.S.
One was emotional and conciliatory.
The other was cold and combative.

Kennedy’s team had to decide: which tone do we respond to?
They chose the gentler interpretation - and de-escalated the conflict.

Same sender.
Two possible tones.
Choosing the kinder one changed the outcome.

2. “Mokusatsu” — the word with two meanings

In 1945, Japan’s Prime Minister used the word mokusatsu when responding to the Allied ultimatum.
It can mean “we withhold comment for now” or “we ignore this with contempt.”

The Allies interpreted it as contempt.
History unfolded from there.

(This example is debated but it illustrates how meaning can hinge on a single ambiguous word.)

3. And then, of course: “Let’s eat Grandma.”

Add one comma and you’re inviting her to dinner.
Remove it and you’re suggesting cannibalism.

Tone and punctuation aren’t details.
They change the entire world of meaning.

Rewriting the world from the inside out

Back to our original message:

“Do you know where the report from last week is?”

Try reading it with five different voices:
sarcastic, annoyed, neutral, enthusiastic, supportive.

Watch how your heartbeat changes.
Watch how your posture changes.
Watch how your assumptions change.

Then ask yourself:

What if the tone you default to is simply the tone you’ve been using on yourself all week?

If your inner voice has been harsh, everything sounds harsh.

If your inner voice softens, the world softens with it.

Change the voice in your head, and you change the way the world feels around you.

A small practice that changes everything

Here’s something worth trying today:

1. Take the last message that irritated you.

2. Read it aloud in five completely different tones.

3. Notice how each tone shifts the meaning.

4. Ask: Which tone is most likely true?

5. Then ask the braver question: Which tone did I bring to it?

The world becomes far more manageable when you stop assuming the worst.

And far kinder when you stop assuming the worst of yourself.

A Free Prompt to Train Your Kinder Voice

If you want to turn this into an actual habit and not just a nice idea here’s a tool to help you practise.

In my paid posts, I include prompts like this one each week.
Here’s a few you can use right now - totally free:

Prompt 1 — Reframe the Message

I will paste a message below. Act as my calm, grounded inner voice.
Offer three possible interpretations: neutral, positive, and the most generous possible reading.
Explain how each one would change the way I respond.

Prompt 2 — Tone Tester

I’ll paste a sentence. Read it back to me in five tones: annoyed, neutral, enthusiastic, supportive, and caring.
Explain how the meaning shifts with each tone.

Then rewrite the sentence in a clearer, warmer way that makes the positive intention unmistakable — while keeping the original meaning intact.
Show me a before-and-after so I can see how small changes in wording change how I feel.

Prompt 3 — Inner Voice Reset

I will paste something I’m thinking negatively about, rewrite the inner voice version in a kinder, more constructive tone — without removing the truth, only removing the self-attack.

If you try any of these today, reply and let me know how it felt.
Your voice is with you every minute of your life so it’s worth making it a kind one.

What to read next…..

If you’d like more prompts such as this to help you with other parts of your life, such as winding down before the weekend or getting your Monday off to the best start, check out these recent posts.

To get the latest post each week hit the subscribe button here.

Subscribe now

Why Your Weekends Feel Heavy, and the 30 Minute Reset That Fixes It

Most people think they switch off when they close their laptop on a Friday. They don’t.

It took me a long time to realise that the reason my weekends felt heavy had nothing to do with how busy my week had been. It was because I never actually ended the week. I carried it with me.

For a few years, my Saturdays became a bit of a write off.
Friday night was relief.
Saturday morning was fog.

I would wake up and my mind would still be inside my Outlook inbox. Still in meetings. Still holding mental Post-it notes about tasks I needed to pick up on Monday. I would be physically sat at the breakfast table with my family, but mentally I was still at work.

And because of that, Saturdays stopped feeling like Saturdays.
They became recovery days.
Not real recovery.
Just mental decompression.

Then Sunday would finally feel like a weekend, but by then half of it had already gone. I’d feel guilty that I’d wasted the Saturday in a haze. And then the cycle would repeat the following week.

It wasn’t until I started paying attention to it that I realised something important:

It wasn’t physical exhaustion. It was mental left overs from an unfinished week.

We think we shut down when we close our laptop. But hybrid work changed that. When your office is your spare room or the corner of the kitchen, simply shutting the lid doesn’t signal anything to your brain.

Your laptop is off.
But your work brain is still running in the background.

And unless you close the week properly, your mind will happily keep working long after you stop.

Why this happens: what the research shows

This isn’t just personal experience. There is a surprising amount of research that explains why weekends often fail to restore us.

1. The Zeigarnik Effect

Unfinished tasks stay active in the brain. Your mind keeps looping them because it does not want you to forget. This creates intrusive thoughts and the sense of having your week “still running” in your head.

2. Cognitive offloading only works if your brain trusts the system

Writing tasks down only clears your mind if the brain believes those notes will be returned to. If not, your mind continues to hold onto them. A structured Friday ritual solves this because it signals closure.

3. Weekend recovery requires psychological detachment

Studies show that people who mentally detach on weekends return stronger on Monday. Those who don’t detach report higher stress and lower energy, even if they technically had more hours off.

4. Context switching makes the mental residue worse

The more you switch between tasks, tabs, rooms, emails, kids, Teams chats, and Slack threads, the more your mind scatters. Hybrid work increased switching dramatically. A weekly reset pulls everything back into one place.

5. Monday bottlenecks create false overwhelm

Research shows Monday mornings feel awful mainly because of reactivation. You are not overwhelmed by workload. You are overwhelmed by remembering what the workload even is.

6. High performers use shutdown rituals

Athletes cool down after an intense session. Knowledge workers don’t. Yet the brain needs closure just as much as the body does.

This is exactly why weekends feel heavy. It is not your workload. It is the loose ends.

And this is why I started treating Friday afternoon differently.

The insight that changed everything

If you want weekends to feel like weekends, and if you want to hit Monday with energy, you need a moment where you formally close the week.

Not emotionally.
Not vaguely.
Not “I’ll remember this on Monday”.

A real closure point.

A weekly shutdown ritual that empties your mind, ties off loose threads, captures what mattered, and sets you up for the next week.

Not complicated.
Not time consuming.
Not a forced march through your entire to do list.

Just thirty minutes where you pull the week together and put it down.

A weekly reset.

Below is the exact method I use every Friday. You can copy it or adapt it. There is also a full AI prompt that will run the Reset for you so you can start this ritual this week.

This is the tool that protects your weekends and supercharges your Mondays.

Here is exactly how to do it

The Weekly Reset Framework

You only need thirty minutes. Here is the structure plus 6 prompts you can use right now to get you started including my “Flagship Friday Wrap Up Prompt”.

Read more

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The Power of Small Wins

We’re at that time of year when the world seems to split in two.
Half of LinkedIn is already winding down for Christmas. The other half is shouting about their biggest year ever, their side hustles, their goals for 2026.

And you’re left somewhere in the middle - wondering where the year went, how you’ve not quite finished the things you set out to do, and whether you’re already falling behind.

It’s easy to feel that way in November. The horizon is full of deadlines and festive noise, and the internet is full of people who look like they’ve already won.

But here’s the thing: you don’t need a big win.
You just need a small one.

Why big plans backfire

When you’ve got too many ideas in your head, everything feels heavy.
That weight — what we call overwhelm — is the reason so many projects stall. It’s not laziness or lack of ambition. It’s that you’re trying to hold too many moving parts in your mind at once.

The best antidote I know is something I call chunking it up.

Grab a blank piece of paper and write your project or problem in the middle.
Then start spilling your thoughts.
Questions. Ideas. People you need to speak to. Risks. Unknowns. Assumptions.

Everything that’s buzzing in your head, get it out onto the page.

Then bring it to life - use colours or highlighters.
Maybe blue for data issues, green for people, orange for decisions.
Draw lines between related things. Patterns will start to appear.

What you’ve just done is move the chaos from your mind to the page.
And from there, a plan starts to form.

How small wins build momentum

Each year, my team is tasked with running a nationwide rail seat sale.
Doing it within one train company is hard enough. Doing it across every operator is another level entirely - dozens of people to coordinate, endless moving parts, competing priorities.

At first, it felt impossible.
So we did what I always do when something feels too big: we mapped it out.
The mechanics of the sale in one area. The stakeholders in another. The objectives in another. Within an hour, the shape of the problem had revealed itself.
And from that, we could see the next small step: draft one page describing how the sale would deliver for customers in a single market.

That one page created momentum.
It gave us something real to react to - and suddenly the path ahead looked clearer.

You can do this with anything: a report, a presentation, even your health.

Think of the smallest chunk you can tackle and start there.

Motivation doesn’t come first

Most people think they need to feel motivated before they start.
That’s backwards.

Motivation doesn’t precede action - it follows it.

Psychologists Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer call this the Progress Principle: the most powerful source of motivation is simply making progress in meaningful work.

Take one tiny action, get a tiny result, feel a small burst of progress — and that spark creates the motivation for the next step.

It’s a feedback loop: action → progress → motivation → more action.
Momentum creates movement; waiting for motivation just creates guilt.

Keep it directional

Not all movement is progress, of course.
Ten busy steps in the wrong direction just drain your energy.

That’s why small wins have to connect back to something bigger - your North Star.
Define where you’re trying to go, sketch out the rough path, and then forget about everything except the very next step.

In football, managers always say: focus on the next game.
It’s simple advice, but it’s the difference between a season that builds and one that falls apart.

Work is the same.

Try this today

1. Mind map your overwhelm.
   Write the project name in the middle of a blank page. Dump every thought around it — questions, risks, people, ideas.

2. Highlight themes.
   Use colour or categories. Start spotting patterns and linkages.

3. Choose one next step.
   Ask: what’s the smallest thing I can do right now that moves this forward?

4. Do it - now.
   Send the email. Write the first paragraph. Open the spreadsheet. Then stop and notice how it feels to have moved.

You don’t need a productivity system or a twelve-step plan.
You just need to get started.

Think of the smallest chunk, or smallest task you can do, and do it right now - and see what happens.

What to read next….

Check out my latest post that can help you reinvent your Fridays - plus I share my go to prompts for reviewing your week and getting you set up for Monday morning success!

So, lets start the momentum now.

Drop in the comments below the one small step you are going to take right now…go!

Leave a comment

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How to Find Light When the Days Get Darker

It’s Monday morning.

You wake up, it’s still dark outside, and the air feels heavy. The weekend warmth fades as your inbox fills and the sky never really brightens.

It’s tempting to wish it all away — to count down the weeks until spring, to imagine that everything will somehow feel lighter once the clocks change back.

But if you spend half the year waiting for it to be over, you lose half your life to resistance.

Winter isn’t something to survive.

It’s a season with a purpose — a natural reset.

Nature slows down for a reason. Trees shed their leaves not because they’re dying, but because they’re preparing to grow again. The same can be true for us.

One of the best things I’ve learned over the past decade is that the days when I least feel like going outside are the days I need it most.

Whenever I work from home, I make a point of getting out of the house first thing — for a run, a walk, whatever I can manage. Sometimes it’s raining. Sometimes it’s barely light. But that half hour outdoors changes the whole tone of the day.

Embrace the season. Don’t fight it.

That’s the shift. And here’s how to make it work for you.

1. Catch the light early

Our bodies are wired to respond to light. Morning daylight helps reset your internal clock — your circadian rhythm — which controls mood, energy, and sleep.

Studies show that even a short burst of natural light early in the day boosts alertness, regulates hormones, and improves mood later on.

It’s one of the simplest things you can do to feel better through the darker months.

Before you open your laptop, open your front door.
Fifteen minutes outside, even on a grey day, tells your body that it’s daytime.

2. Surround yourself with daylight at work

I’ve been in offices with big windows and I’ve been in basement workshops. By the end of a day underground, your energy feels like a drained battery.

Research backs that up — workers with good daylight exposure report better sleep and higher vitality than those without windows.

So if you can, move your desk near a window. Take calls where you can see the sky. Eat lunch outdoors, even if it’s cold.
Light isn’t just visual — it’s chemical.

3. Move early, even gently

Exercise is another natural mood regulator.
It doesn’t have to be heroic — a brisk walk, a jog, or even some stretches by the window can lower tension and improve focus.

I find it helps to have something to look forward to early in the week — a Tuesday night football match, a club, or a plan with friends. When you have a small anchor in your week, Monday feels less like the start of a grind and more like a warm-up.

4. End the day the way you began

If morning light wakes your body up, evening calm tells it to rest.

As the sun sets, dim the lights. Step outside if you can — feel the cold air, let your body wind down.

A few weeks ago, my family and I went for a walk just as the sun was going down. It was quiet, still, and we slept incredibly well that night.
There’s something about moving through the day’s full light cycle — dawn to dusk — that makes life feel balanced again.

5. The bigger reframe

We treat winter like a problem to solve, but it’s really a reminder to pause.

Everything in nature slows down now so it can bloom later. You can too.

This is the season to rest your mind, to think, to reset your pace — not to hibernate, but to prepare.

You don’t need to chase the light; you can learn to find it.
Get outside, slow down, and remember: every season has its beauty — even this one.

💬 Please feel free to share your routines below.

💬 How do you reset in winter?

💬 What works for you?

What to read next….

Coffee in hand. Comfortable. Audience mode. The Department for Transport away day was already buzzing and I was looking forward to being a human sponge. Then I glanced at the agenda.

There it was. The cross-industry commercial performance slot. My slot. Except I had delegated it. My colleague was set for a tidy Teams call with maybe 25 people. Not a theatre. Not a roaming camera. Not 400 people in the room and many more online.

I told myself it was fine. Must be a mistake. Must be someone else covering.

I collected my lanyard.

Most people had white. DfT had green. I had red. I looked down. One word under my name: speaker.

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That single word changed everything.

I could feel it. Stomach drop. Tunnel vision. The tiny voice that says not today. I had sixty minutes until showtime and a choice I did not like. Push my teammate into a situation she had not prepared for. Or step in, own the risk, and set the tone for my team.

I stepped in.

If you have ever frozen at work, you will know the feeling. Your brain tries to model the threat and does nothing while it does that. In those moments, the people who move are the ones who have rehearsed a response. I did not have time for a full rehearsal. I needed a simple plan I could build fast.

Below is exactly what I did in that hour. Not theory. What actually happened between the red lanyard and the lectern.

Buckle up - this is a ride through my adrenaline soaked hour that preceded that presentation.

The ticking clock

T-60: Find the story, fast.
I pulled up the deck my colleague had already sent. Ten slides, locked in, order fixed. I flicked through once without stopping. Then again, slower. I forced myself to pick one sentence per slide. Not the perfect sentence. A clear one. If the audience only remembered that line, the talk would still work. I read those ten lines in order. They formed a spine. Good. No time to re-order. Live with it.

T-50: Stop being an audience member.
I checked the agenda and who I followed. I needed a countdown. Knowing exactly when you are up shifts your body from passive to ready. I could feel the nerves trying to pull me off course. I labelled them excitement. Same heartbeat. Different story.

T-40: Walk the space.
Coffee break. Gold dust. I walked the exact route from my seat to the stage. Three or four steps up. I found the clicker. I checked the monitor that mirrors the main screen. I located the camera and then I scanned the room so I could pick a zone to look toward. Mid-distance, not faces. If I start reading expressions, I start overthinking their reactions and I lose the thread.

T-25: Script ignition.
I wrote the first two or three sentences in my head. Simple. Warm. Something to lighten the room and show I wanted to be there. The opening is the ignition point. Get that clean and your system settles.

T-15: Rehearse the beats.
I whispered through each slide. One line per slide. Twice. I was not memorising a speech. The slide would cue the line. The line would cue the transition. I let the deck carry the detail and kept my job simple. Tell the story. Land the point.

T-5: Breathe and commit.
No more fiddling. No new ideas. I felt the dread trying one last time. I said out loud that I was excited to share something useful. That sounds corny until you are standing beside a lectern and it is nearly your turn. Then it helps.

The moment on stage

I took the route I had walked. I set the clicker where I wanted it. I looked toward the zone I had chosen and delivered the opening lines I had rehearsed. A small ripple of recognition in the room. Shoulders dropped. Voice found its shape.

Then it was just the plan. One line per slide. Pause when it mattered. Let charts breathe. Do not chase every number in the box. Make the story do the heavy lifting. Aim a portion of my attention at the camera so the online audience felt addressed, not forgotten.

Why the plan works when the room is big and the clock is small

• It shrinks cognitive load. Under pressure your working memory is a shoebox. One sentence per slide fits. Ten sentences in order is a map you can hold while your adrenaline is high.

• It removes unknowns. Walking the space stops your brain wasting energy on steps, screens and clickers. That energy returns to delivery.

• It creates early wins. A clean opening is a small first success. Your system shifts from threat to challenge. That shows up in your face, voice and pace.

• It sets culture. Stepping in protected my teammate and showed the room what my team does under pressure. People remember how you behave when it is inconvenient.

The debrief I ran afterwards

I do this while the feeling is still fizzing.

1. What single decision helped the most
   Choosing one line per slide. It made everything else easier.

2. What friction will I remove next time
   A printed strip (if you have time but written down is good enough) with the ten lines and my opening on the lectern.

3. What did I learn about my reactions
   Eyes on the horizon keep my thinking clear. If I scan faces I over-interpret.

Capture it. Use it. That is how a one-off rescue becomes a repeatable response.

Your 60-minute scramble plan

If you are handed the mic with an hour to go, steal this.

1. Get the deck. Force one clean sentence per slide. Write them in order.

2. Check the exact slot and who you follow. Give your body a countdown.

3. Walk the route to the stage. Find steps, clicker, monitor, camera, sightline.

4. Script your first three sentences. Include a light touch early.

5. Whisper through the ten lines twice. Let the deck hold the detail.

6. Decide where to look. Mid-distance or one friendly face you trust.

7. Rename nerves as excitement. Say it out loud.

8. Deliver a slow first line. Then settle into your natural pace.

9. Stick to the spine. Charts support you, they do not lead you.

10. Debrief within ten minutes. Keep one improvement for next time.

Final thought

Most people freeze because they do not have a plan they can reach for when the lanyard is red and the room is big. You can build one in under an hour. Find the story. Walk the space. Script the start. Reduce choices. Then step forward.

The adrenaline will still be there. Good. That is fuel. The difference is that now you know what to do with it.

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Martin

I think it depends on why you are reading it. If you are reading for pure enjoyment, maybe it doesn’t matter. But if you are reading because you believe it has come from a real person who has lived it, learned from it, and is sharing those experiences with you, then it absolutely matters. That human fingerprint is the value.

And here’s where it gets tricky. Today, AI can already mimic your style well enough that many people would believe it was written by you. It might not be perfect, but it will pass the “real or not” test for a lot of readers.

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The LinkedIn moment that brings this home

You are scrolling through LinkedIn and you come across a post from someone in your industry. It is about overcoming setbacks in business. It is thoughtful, raw, and full of personal anecdotes. The writing is crisp. The advice feels hard-won. You find yourself nodding along because it speaks directly to some of your own struggles.

You bookmark it.
You share it with your network.
You drop it into your team chat.
You even reference it in a client conversation that week because it is that relevant.

Then, you find out it was entirely made up by AI.

Does this change how you feel about the advice? Does it make those insights less valuable? Or does the fact it didn’t come from a real person take away some of its weight?

Your gut reaction probably tells the story.

Trust is now a big issue

This is not just about writing. Videos can be faked too. Today’s deepfakes are good enough to cause mischief, but fast forward a couple of years and you could create a convincing, entirely fictional person from scratch.

That means anything you put out into the world that is truly from you becomes valuable. People will want to see you and know that you are real.

Building a real world presence

Your social presence is going to be the proof point that you are real. When you show your personality, share the behind-the-scenes, and engage in real conversations, you are building a personal brand that gives your work credibility.

This is especially important because most people will take the lazy option and let AI do everything. That will flood the internet with content that is technically correct but bland and hollow.

The “right way” to use AI

There is a better way.

Instead of “AI, write me this”, start with your own thinking. Use voice memos or rough notes. Put your own experiences and stories on the table first. Then use AI to challenge your ideas, draw more out of you, and help you structure them into something more powerful.

The magic is in the mix. Your lived experience combined with AI’s ability to sharpen and amplify.

Standing on a stage in the real world - that’s scary

A few weeks ago I was standing on a stage in front of 400 people. I knew this was the moment to implement the presentation techniques I have talked about on my Substack.

Things like focusing on one part of the room so I don’t get thrown off by people’s expressions, not locking onto individual eyeballs, familiarising myself with the space before I started, and knowing the key point I was going to make on each slide.

These are not tips I copied from a book or generated in a prompt. They are things I have learned from actually doing it. You could get AI to write you a guide to presentations, but it would be average. It wouldn’t have the tiny details that come from standing there, lights on you, knowing the nerves will kick in at certain moments.

What simple meetings teach you that AI simply cant

Every day I sit in meetings with real people. You see what works and what doesn’t. You watch people try things for the first time - sometimes it lands brilliantly, sometimes it doesn’t. You notice how a well-timed question can change the whole direction of a conversation, or how a missed opportunity leaves the room flat.

That is knowledge you only get from showing up, not from Googling “how to run a good meeting”.

The real value comes from going out into the world, testing what works, and bringing those lessons back. Then using AI to help you articulate and structure those insights so they have more impact. That is where the power will be, not in some copycat content mill.

Building credibility in the AI world is tough

The risk here is that people with established reputations will keep getting stronger because they already have the trust. Pre-AI experts, celebrities, and thought leaders will carry more weight simply because people know they are real.

It makes it harder for new voices to break through. Twenty or thirty years ago, you could become a household name by appearing on a Saturday night TV show that millions watched together. Now we are all watching different things, on different platforms, in different rooms. Our cultural reference points are fragmented. That makes trust harder to earn from scratch.

And the same problems exist at work too

In a professional environment, this is going to show up in interesting ways. Imagine sharing a written report or strategy and having colleagues quietly wonder if you wrote it yourself. That is where live discussions, Q&A sessions, and collaborative work will become essential proof points.

AI can help you articulate ideas that you have lived but never quite been able to put into words. It can help you package your thinking so it is easier for others to understand. But it should not be used to fake knowledge or experiences you do not have.

What Becomes Important

In a world where AI can do almost everything with words and images, the things that remain scarce and valuable are:

1. Your presence – live, unedited, unscripted.

2. Your voice – shaped by the life you have actually lived.

3. Your relationships – the trust you build over time.

Takeaway Actions

• Show up live: host or join webinars, panels, and interactive sessions.

• Share your process: post behind-the-scenes thinking and rough ideas.

• Mix AI with reality so let AI be your collaborator, not your ghost-writer.

• Lead with stories: always connect your ideas to lived experience.

• Invest in trust: engage where your audience can see and hear the real you.

If you want to stand out in the AI era, make your work impossible to fake.

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What to read next…

A podcast you will love

Discovering new podcasts can be tricky. This week, I have one from Adam Grant on his Rethinking Podcast. He explores how you shouldn’t look to build a personal brand but instead build a reputation. There’s a subtle difference…

And here are some great Substacks to check out.

Polymathic Being- helping you break out of conventional ways of thinking.

- a fascinating journey through psychology

- Practical, science-backed ideas on creativity, well-being, and human potential from a cognitive scientist.

Thank you for reading this week.

Oh, and please restack if you thought this was interesting. Thanks!

And please leave a comment and join the conversation.

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I’ve never really bought into that. My best results have come from having an actual conversation with the AI - going back and forth, refining as I go. That hasn’t changed.

But here’s what has changed: GPT-5.

It’s only been out a few days, but already it’s clear that the way you prompt now matters more than it did before. Not because it’s “pickier” - quite the opposite - but because it’s smarter, more connected, and more context aware.

For the first time, ChatGPT can remember discussions you had weeks ago - before you needed to set up a “project”. This means it now comes into each conversation with a rounded picture of you: what you’ve been working on, the tone you like, the kinds of examples you’ve used before.

That’s brilliant… until it’s not.

This week I was brainstorming newsletter ideas, and GPT-5 started pulling in threads from a conversation we’d had about moving house. Interesting? Yes. Relevant? Not remotely.

That’s the trade-off. With GPT-5’s expanded memory and longer attention span, you have to be sharper and clearer when you start a conversation - or it will happily blend the wrong ingredients into your recipe.

So here’s the framework I’ve been using to keep things on track - one that’s about to become much more important for anyone using AI seriously.

The STAR Framework — for AI, not just job interviews

You might know STAR from interview prep: Situation, Task, Action, Results.

It works brilliantly in prompting too - not necessarily as a single, giant block of text, but as a conversational guide to make sure you’ve fed the AI everything it needs early on.

Why bother? Because vague prompts get you vague answers. And now, with GPT-5’s new “long memory,” unclear starting points will just lead it down the wrong rabbit hole for longer.

Here’s how STAR works when you’re talking to AI:

Situation – give it the background so it knows where you’re starting from.

Task – define the specific thing you want to work on together.

Action – tell it how you want it to behave and think.

Results – spell out the exact type of output you want.

Done right, this changes the whole tone of your interaction. The AI stops being a generic content-spitter and starts feeling like a partner who “gets it” from the start.

If you’re a free subscriber, this is where we part ways for today. Paid readers get the full breakdown: how to actually structure each STAR element, examples you can copy-paste, and the tweaks that make GPT-5 push your thinking instead of parroting it.

The STAR Framework in Action - How to Prompt GPT-5 Like a Pro

This is where STAR really earns its keep. Let’s break it down step-by-step, with prompts you can literally copy, paste, and adapt for whatever you’re working on.

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“I think they might be about to attack me. Their eyes are staring straight at me. Are they about to burn down my village and steal my goat?”

Most likely not….this is your first 1:1 of the week on MS Teams and the most scary thing on the agenda is what sandwiches we should put on at the next away day.

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So why do we feel so threatened?

Direct eye contact goes right the heart of our communication and taps into that part of the brain that existed in human history before we were even able to talk to each other using our complex languages.

Because of this, many people find face-to-face communication triggers a defensive response that says "this person might be a threat."

We put up defences, we are ready to stand our ground. Now of course this isn’t a great way to start a meeting on a normal wet Monday morning online with your team member.

This isn't about being antisocial or emotionally unavailable. It's about understanding that people have different communication comfort zones. When we push traditional formats such as eye contact across a table, immediate emotional openness, we might be working against natural communication preferences that help many people feel safe.

Try and think more “shoulder to shoulder”

There's a simple but powerful alternative - shoulder-to-shoulder communication. Think about it. When do people seem most comfortable talking? During a walk, working on a project together, or standing at a party slightly angled toward the room rather than directly facing each other.

This positioning does something remarkable. It removes the perceived threat of direct confrontation and creates a sense of shared purpose. Instead of "you versus me," it becomes "us together, facing the world."

The conversation flows naturally because the defensive walls come down.

This insight becomes even more relevant in our digital age

Remote work has fundamentally changed how we communicate, often forcing us into face-to-face video calls that can feel intense or confrontational. For many people, staring directly into a camera while someone stares back can trigger defensive responses.

Interestingly, glancing away from the camera might accidentally make conversations feel safer. Think for a minute to those people who set up their laptop and camera to one side of a main monitor and then appear to not actually be looking directly at you.

That slightly "off-angle" gaze replicates the shoulder-to-shoulder dynamic that many people naturally prefer.

Could this also explain why some individuals struggle more with remote work than others?

While office environments naturally provide opportunities for side-by-side communication such as walking to meetings, standing around a whiteboard, chatting while making coffee, remote work strips these away in favour of intense, direct eye contact through screens.

Try talking to a teenager face to face - exactly!

This communication style extends beyond professional settings. Many parents find their kids open up more during car rides, while watching TV, or working side-by-side, rather than in formal "let's talk" moments.

The key insight is that meaningful conversation often happens best when it's not forced. When people are engaged in a shared activity or looking in the same direction, emotional sharing becomes more natural and less threatening.

Maybe that’s why golf is so good for making deals - just don’t cheat. You know who you are….

Why This Matters for Mental Health

Mental health challenges affect everyone in some way at some point in their lives, but communication barriers often prevent people from getting the support they need. Social isolation, difficulty opening up, and resistance to seeking help are common struggles across all demographics.

When people can communicate shoulder-to-shoulder:

• Conversations feel less threatening

• Emotional sharing happens naturally and isn’t forced

• Problems and solutions come up organically

• Genuine support develops without pressure

So how can we apply this?

Understanding different communication preferences opens up new possibilities for supporting mental health and connection:

In Person:

• Walking meetings instead of sitting across a desk

• Activity-based support groups where people work with their hands while talking

• Side-by-side conversations during shared tasks or hobbies

• Informal gatherings where people can position themselves comfortably

In Digital Spaces:

• Using second screens during video calls to reduce direct eye contact intensity

• Switch to audio-only for sensitive talks

• Virtual "walk and talk" sessions where people can move around

• Screen-sharing activities that create a shared focus point

At Home:

• Car conversations during drives

• Side-by-side activities like cooking, gardening, or watching shows together

• Working on projects together rather than scheduling formal talks

When people feel safe to communicate, they share their struggles

Work stress, family pressures, financial worries, health concerns are all difficult conversations. They offer each other practical advice and emotional support. They build genuine connections. They model healthy communication for others around them.

Individual Differences Matter

Not everyone prefers shoulder-to-shoulder communication, and that's perfectly normal. Some people thrive on direct eye contact and face-to-face interaction. The key is recognising that communication preferences vary and adapting accordingly. Pay attention to when someone seems most comfortable sharing.

A formal sit-down conversation might not be best.

The next time you want to have a meaningful conversation with someone, consider the setting

Suggest a walk, work on a project together, or simply position yourself side-by-side rather than face-to-face. In video calls, try using a second screen or adjusting your camera angle. You might be surprised how much more open and genuine the conversation becomes.

And let’s not forget that you can bring mental health benefits from facilitating the right conversations. It's also about creating safe spaces where people can open up and connect.

Sometimes, that's as simple as standing shoulder-to-shoulder, looking in the same direction, working toward shared understanding.

A podcast you will love

Discovering new podcasts can be tricky. This week I’ve discovered one I think you’ll like - Cautionary Tales by Tim Harford.

Building on the importance of communication theme this week - what happens when some says “don’t take off” and actually hears “take off”. Eeek.

And here are some great Substacks to check out.

- helping you break out of conventional ways of thinking.

- teaching you how to make data work for you and your business.

- Taking a scientific approach to your career.

What to read next….

And finally….

If you liked this post please share it with someone you think might enjoy it too.

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The itinerary was pristine - times, connections, schedules. We’d visualised how our Three Peaks by Rail challenge would unfold over three days. Jo, Mark, Aishah, and I were ready to conquer Snowdon, Scafell Pike, and Ben Nevis while traveling between them on a specially chartered train.

What we got instead was a masterclass in adaptation.

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Day One: When Trains Let You Down

Our first challenge came before we’d even left London.

Standing at Euston Station at 1 PM, Jo’s text landed like a thunderbolt: “Oh, dear.” A derailment at Milton Keynes had severed all northbound rail connections. No trains to Crewe.

Plan A was toast.

In that moment, we learned something about our team dynamics. I went silent, mentally stress-testing alternative routes. Jo started talking—a lot. We were processing the same crisis in completely different ways, but somehow it worked.

We scrambled into a taxi bound for Marylebone, only to be immediately stuck in gridlock. We debated sprinting on foot, contemplated the Tube, and ran scenarios in our heads. Jo dropped her coat as we bailed out of the cab with minutes to spare. I dashed through the concourse, accidentally cutting off an elderly lady (sorry, whoever you were) and made it through the barriers with barely enough time to leap onto the Birmingham train as the doors closed.

Sometimes the best plans are the ones you make on the fly.

Into the Welsh Darkness

By 9:45 PM, we were finally starting our ascent of Snowdon. The mountain guide had warned us it would be “cold and wet.” We didn’t believe him—after all, we’d left Crewe in glorious sunshine.

The mountain had other ideas.

Immediately, the rain arrived with biblical intensity, turning our head torches into useless beacons in the swirling mist. The drops cascaded unseen into the darkness to our right, reminding us there was a sheer drop somewhere nearby… but mercifully invisible.

But here’s what I discovered about mountains in the dark: they strip everything down to basics. You can’t see the drops, can’t appreciate the views, can’t do anything except focus on the feet of the person in front of you and keep moving. One step, then another, then another.

When we finally crawled on hands and knees to touch Snowdon’s peak at midnight, it felt less like triumph and more like survival. The guides were already rushing people off the mountain—conditions were becoming dangerous.

The Bog of Scafell Pike

Friday brought new optimism and new challenges. The approach to Scafell Pike involved an eight-kilometre trek through what can only be described as a liquid landscape. Every path had become a river. Every step was a gamble between bog and solid ground.

Jo’s boots failed early, leading to painful blisters that would haunt the rest of our journey. The supposed “lovely walk over the hill” became an endurance test in waterlogged misery. The rivers were swollen, the rocks slippery, and each crossing felt like a mini adventure of its own.

Then came the crushing news: Scafell Pike was off-limits. River levels were too high, stranding 150 people on a mountain wasn’t a great look. We could walk to the crossing point and back, but the summit would remain unconquered.

The real test came afterward - three hours standing in a car park in driving rain and bitter wind, waiting for minibuses that were stuck in Manchester traffic. People were breaking out the emergency foil blankets. Hypothermia was becoming a genuine concern.

Those three hours taught me more about resilience than any mountain summit could.

Finding Philosophy in the Café

Sitting in the Ravenglass station café at 4:30 PM, facing another two and a half hours in wet clothes before our train returned, I hit my lowest point. The thought of getting ready for Ben Nevis the next day felt impossible.

But sometimes rock bottom provides the clearest view.

We discovered the advanced art of shoe-drying via hand dryer. “Have you tried zipping it up and blowing it with the dryer?” someone asked. Ridiculous as it looked, it worked—and gave us something to laugh about when we needed it most. Somewhere between the chips and the ice cream, we even found humour in our misery.

And somewhere in that café, we had a conversation with ChatGPT that changed our perspective.

The AI gave us a mantra: “This is neither good nor bad. It just is what it is.”

That simple phrase became our anchor. Instead of fighting against the experience or mourning what we’d expected, we chose to experience what was actually happening. The shift was profound.

Ben Nevis: Knowing When to Stop

Day three brought breakfast delays, train obstructions, and another hour lost to mechanical failures. Jo, hobbled by blisters, made the wise decision to skip Ben Nevis entirely.

Mark, Aishah, and I started the climb, but the previous days had taken their toll. A third of the way up, with Aishah feeling faint and my vision occasionally swimming, we made the call to turn back. Mark pushed on alone, summiting with just seven minutes to spare.

There’s no shame in recognising your limits. Sometimes the bravest decision is knowing when to stop.

What We Actually Accomplished

By traditional measures, we “failed.” We didn’t climb all three peaks. We didn’t stick to the schedule. We encountered every possible setback short of actual disaster.

But look at what we did achieve. We raised over £5,000 for children in real need—more than some teams who made it to every summit. We supported each other through genuine adversity, sharing equipment, encouragement, and laughter. We never once turned on each other, despite the exhaustion and chaos.

Most importantly, we proved that resilience isn’t about ticking off peaks—it’s about carrying on when everything goes wrong. And that, in many ways, feels like the bigger victory.

Lessons from the Mountains

Plans are frameworks, not prophecies. They give you something to adapt from, not something to cling to desperately.

Teams have rhythms. Jo needed patience when things felt overwhelming. Aishah’s boundless energy came in joyful bursts, then she’d recharge in silence. Mark provided steady calm. I defaulted to problem-solving mode in quiet contemplation. Understanding these patterns helped us support each other better.

The mental game is harder than the physical one. Knowing you can do something (having climbed a mountain before) makes the second and third attempts mentally easier, even when you’re physically exhausted.

Stories matter. People are hungry for narratives that break the daily routine. Our “disaster” became the most interesting story we had to tell.

The Unexpected Gift

Perhaps the greatest discovery was that people need more stories in their lives. Everyone we’ve told about this trip has been genuinely fascinated. There’s something powerful about choosing to do difficult things, even when—especially when—they don’t go according to plan.

The mountains didn’t care about our schedule. The weather didn’t respect our preparation. The trains didn’t run on time. But in navigating these challenges together, we discovered reserves of resilience we didn’t know we had.

Even our Railway 200 teddy bear became a small legend on the trip, tucked under sleeping passengers’ arms by a mischievous volunteer and photographed with fellow travellers before being gifted to him as a parting memento.

Would I do it again? Absolutely. Would I do it differently? Probably not. The chaos, the adaptation, the shared struggle—that was the real journey. The mountains were just the venue.

So far our team has raised over £5,000 for charity during this adventure. Sometimes the best way to reach your destination is to embrace getting completely lost along the way. If you’d like to contribute it is certainly not too late!

Here is the link.

I hope you enjoyed this account - it was fun to write so hopefully it was fun to read.

Thank you.

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Tomorrow at 4pm, I'll be standing on Crewe Station platform, probably looking a bit bewildered and definitely over-caffeinated, ready to start what might be the maddest thing I've ever signed up for.

The Three Peaks Challenge by train. Three mountains, three days, one slightly unhinged team, and hopefully enough coffee to keep us upright.

All in aid of Railway Children – a charity that does absolutely incredible work helping vulnerable kids who've found themselves in really tough spots.

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What Have I Actually Signed Myself Up For?

Right, so here's the plan.

We meet at Crewe at 4pm tomorrow, jump on a train to Snowdon, and then – and this is where it gets properly mental – we're climbing Wales' highest mountain in the dark. Not at dawn. Not in daylight. In the actual dark, with head torches, trying not to fall off a mountain.

The plan is to reach the summit around midnight. I mean, I'm usually in my pyjamas by then, not scrambling up rocks in Wales. Then we come back down as the sun's coming up, which sounds romantic until you remember we'll probably be exhausted, possibly lost, and definitely questioning our life choices.

After that?

Back on the train for what I'm optimistically calling "a bit of sleep" but will probably be more like "nodding off against the window while someone snores." We'll grab some breakfast (if we can manage it) and then we're off up the Cumbrian Coast to Scafell Pike.

Now, here's where my train geek side gets properly excited.

We're going to see which route they take us on – will we go past Barrow-in-Furness? Might we spot Sellafield nuclear power station? I know, I know, only someone who works in railways gets this excited about train routes, but honestly, it's going to be fascinating.

Friday's Scafell Pike day – England's highest mountain, tackled around lunchtime when we're already knackered. Then it's the big journey north through Glasgow and up into the Scottish Highlands for the grand finale: Ben Nevis on Saturday morning.

We're aiming to be done by midday, at which point I suspect we'll either be euphoric or completely broken. Possibly both.

Why On Earth Am I Doing This?

Good question.

Back in January, I was having what you might generously call a "moment." The house sale had fallen through, Christmas was over, and I was staring at the year ahead thinking, "Right, what now?" I needed something to get excited about, something to work toward.

I'd seen friends do similar challenges and they always said how amazing it was. Plus, I love trains (occupational hazard), and let's be honest, I needed a proper challenge. So I fired off an email. "Sorry, we're full," came back. Typical. But then, two days later – plot twist – someone had dropped out and there was a space. It felt like it was meant to be.

June seemed absolutely ages away back then. Now here we are, the night before, and I'm genuinely wondering where those months went.

The Bit I'm Slightly Terrified About

Everyone keeps asking about the physical side, but honestly? I think the lack of sleep is going to be the killer. I really, really like my bed. The thought of trying to kip on a train while my brain's still buzzing from climbing mountains is properly daunting.

We've got these old Mark III carriages – the same ones they used with HST trains – so at least they're first-class seats. Between the four of us, we've got six seats, so we can spread out a bit. Maybe someone will end up on the floor. We'll see how desperate we get.

Here's the thing though – most people do this challenge the sensible way: Ben Nevis first when you're fresh, then Scafell Pike, then finish with the "easy" one, Snowdon. Not us. Oh no. We're doing it backwards, which means we'll be tackling Scotland's beast when we're absolutely shattered.

Brilliant planning, that.

I've Packed for Every Possible Disaster

My bag looks like I'm preparing for the apocalypse.

It's been scorching hot lately, so I've got shorts and sunscreen. But there's been snow on Ben Nevis recently, so I've also packed thermals and enough warm gear to survive an Arctic expedition. And because this is Britain, there's definitely going to be rain at some point, so the waterproofs are in there too.

Oh, and the essentials: jelly babies (obviously), energy drinks, caffeine tablets, and some homemade cake that might just save our sanity at 3am on Saturday morning.

We're even taking our Railway 200 teddy bear with us. His name's Waterpoo (long story involving a LinkedIn competition and a play on Waterloo Station and Pooh Bear), and he's going to be our little mascot representing 200 years of British railways. He's probably the most sensible member of the team.

It's Not Just About the Mountains

Here's the important bit – we're doing this for Railway Children, and they do absolutely incredible work. They help kids who've ended up in dangerous situations, kids who've run away from home, kids who need someone in their corner. They provide safe spaces, practical help, and hope when everything else has gone wrong.

We've been fundraising for months now, and people have been so generous it's actually been quite emotional. We've grown tomato plants and flogged them to the neighbours, held cake sales, organized competitions (who can guess how many jelly babies are in a jar, that sort of thing). We hit our £4,000 target, but honestly, every extra pound makes a real difference to a young person's life.

Come Along for the Ride

If you want to track us and make sure we're actually doing this mad thing before you part with your cash (totally fair), here is our tracking link so you can follow our every stumble up these mountains. I'll be scribbling everything down in my notebook and using a bit of AI magic to turn my probably illegible notes into proper updates.

The weirdest thing? I'm actually nervous now. Properly nervous. What if I've forgotten something crucial? What if the train's delayed? What if I'm not fit enough? What if I slip on ice? (I really, really don't like ice.) All those "what ifs" are doing my head in.

But that's exactly why this matters. It's pushing me way outside my comfort zone, and it's for people who really need our help.

Right Then, Here's the Ask

So, if you fancy supporting us – and more importantly, supporting Railway Children – there are a couple of ways you can help. You can chuck a few quid into our fundraising pot (here), or if you want to become a paid subscriber to this newsletter, every penny from 2025 subscriptions is going straight to the charity.

Win-win – you get all my ramblings for a year, and vulnerable kids get help.

Tomorrow afternoon, when I'm standing on that platform wondering what on earth I've signed up for, I'll be thinking about everyone who's backed us. This isn't just about four idiots climbing mountains – it's about showing that ordinary people can do extraordinary things when there's a cause worth fighting for.

Right, I'd better go and check my bag for the fifth time. The adventure starts in less than 24 hours, and I can't quite believe we're actually doing this.

Wish us luck – we're probably going to need it.

PS Please share this with your three best friends and help us spread the word!

Or if you don’t have any friends please hit the restack button.

Thanks!

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Taking journaling to a new level

I’ve found it difficult to stick to a journaling habit. Well actually I’ve found it pretty impossible.

I’ve tried using Ryan Holiday’s journaling prompt book. A page for every day of the year plus a number of prompts on each page to get you thinking and writing. I managed to keep that up for 2 days.

Then I had a short break.

Tried it again and then gave up.

To be honest, I was demoralised by fact that I had to leave loads of pages blank as I’d missed those days and I just wasn’t getting anything back.

It was boring.

I’ve tried the Day One App

This App is nicely laid out. You’re encouraged to post each day and having it on your phone its always there and it prompts you to add an entry. You can add pictures and locations and it looks and feels nice.

But it didn’t take long for the monthly payments to start bothering me. Every time I opened the app, I felt more frustrated - paying to use it, yet becoming increasingly tied to it. The more I wrote, the more trapped I felt, worried I’d lose everything if I ever stopped paying.

So I stopped.

And that has been the end of my journaling career - until this week

Ok ok. It’s only one week but let me explain what I’m up to here. The process is ridiculously simple.

I have a notebook. Yes! A real paper notebook with a nice pen.

The task is to write down your stream of consciousness for 5-10 mins.

That’s all. Write down everything and anything that comes into your head.

The trick is to not let your pen leave the paper.

You don’t really want to think about what you’re saying.

Repeat this one or twice a day.

Get it all out and down on that paper.

Let’s head over to ChatGPT - how to set it up…

The first time you do this, you’re going to need to do a little setting up.

We’re going to use ChatGPT’s “Projects”. These are areas where you can start or add chats with the project specifically set up for ChatGPT to respond in a certain way.

1. Start a new Project and label it “Journal”

2. Underneath the chat window you will find “Add files” and “Instructions”

3. Open “Instructions” and add how you would like ChatGPT to respond to your journaling - my prompt is set out below

Feel free to steal or adapt my journaling prompt below for applying to all chats within the Journal project you have now set up.

PROMPT to add to project instructions:

I’m uploading journal entries. Your role is to act as a professional life coach.

Step 1: Read the journal entry and bring the key themes and emotional undercurrents into the chat. Summarise briefly what you notice without judgment.

Step 2: Use your coaching expertise, the latest self-development techniques, and insights from our previous conversations to offer thoughtful support, ideas, or challenges where helpful.

Step 3: Ask me one question at a time — not a list — that will help me go deeper or move forward in a meaningful way. Wait for my answer before you continue.

You should draw on my past reflections, goals, concerns, and values.

Stay warm but direct. I want coaching, not coddling. Let’s get into the real stuff.

Priming the AI to respond in a certain way

In the first section of the prompt I’ve set out the role I want it to play. I’ve gone for professional life coach but you could have “motherly figure” or “drill sergeant” - have a play around and set it up in a way that will work with your personality and what you think will drive you.

Do you need someone to be harsh with you or a shoulder to cry on?!

Then I set out the prompt into three stages.

1. Stage 1 - This is about getting the journal entry ingested and summarised, so I can check that it’s been read and understood accurately

2. Stage 2 - This is about offering some guidance based on the personality you set up

3. Stage 3 - This is about challenging you to go further in your thinking with some useful questions based around your thoughts that day.

Notice that I asked for “one question at a time” - this is a key prompt technique that you can use again and again. Without this, ChatGPT will ask you a number of questions all at once and it can feel overwhelming to have to answer all at the same time.

One question at a time gives you much more scope to have a conversation and bounce ideas off each other.

Now you have your AI primed - let’s add some journaling

Once you’ve finished your ten mins of continual journaling with your pen and paper it’s time to crack open ChatGPT and a chat within the Journal Project.

Click the add button and select camera.

Take a separate picture of each of the pages of journal you wrote that day and an intro prompt such as:

Journal entry for Thursday 12th June 2025

That’s all you need. The Project Instructions will do the rest of the prompting for you from that point onwards.

Side note: ChatGPT is pretty incredible at reading my handwriting - better than me in fact. To be sure, make sure you write important words as clear as possible just to head off the risk of it getting the wrong end of the stick. (This week it did get confused by a Shearing Meeting and some sheep when it was actually a Steering Group Meeting)

So what will you get out of this?

I can only talk to my experience this week but just the act of getting those ideas down on a piece of paper helps me order my thoughts. I feel fresh and unburdened once I’m done with those ten mins.

And as a bonus, you get to interact with a non-judgemental partner and use the summary as a springboard to bounce around a few ideas.

Over time, ChatGPT has started spotting links between my journal entries across the week - and that’s where the real benefits are starting to emerge.

Today, for example, it suggested a brilliant strategy for dealing with doomscrolling.

I’ll share more on that in the coming weeks.

So what do you think? Will you give it a try?

Let us know in the comments if you’ve tried anything similar? How have you found it?

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It means a lot to get the feedback - good and bad!

Thank you - and see you in the comments.

Roll forward 18 months and it’s about to take over the planet and destroy the human race.

Well, that escalated quickly.

Indeed. But hold it right there. Until I see AI robots parading down my street rounding up everyone who was rude to Siri I’m not overly concerned. In the interim period between the birth of AI - thank you Sam Altman - and the AI apocalypse we have an opportunity.

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But what exactly is that opportunity

This is where I think a lot of people are losing the plot and hence are missing the massive opportunity right at your fingertips.

It’s easy to put together a list of 100 risks AI brings and it’s true there are risks out there. The prevalence of AI written essays in schools, endless social media posts automated by these tools and of course the growing risk of video fakes that topple governments. Vigilance is clearly needed and it will be for governments and organisations to step up and deal with these as best they can.

As individuals we have to try and separate ourselves from the apocalypse that will probably never happen. We can campaign for change of course - as we should as good citizens - but ultimately there is very little we can do.

ChatGPT is not there to (just) replace Google

Of course it could replace Google and many people are now using it as a google replacement.

We used to sit in front of the TV, a well known actor would appear and the question of how they are would inevitably be asked. In the olden days we would pull up Google or Safari and type in the question.

Now, the first thing we say is “let’s ask ChatGPT”. And of course ChatGPT will oblige with (usually) the correct answer plus a little bit of side info and for some reason it has also started asking if I’d like that in a printable PDF that I can pin on my wall - maybe that’s a little dark AI humour there. Who knows.

But asking ChatGPT these inane question is a little bit of a waste really.

It’s a little like buying a Lamborghini and only using to take a few bags of garden waste to the tip and the weekly food shop two blocks down the road.

The real benefits of ChatGPT another such AIs very much lie elsewhere.

So let’s explore a few here.

So where are the opportunities?

Firstly, you need a mindset shift.

As I said above, stop thinking about ChatGPT as a question and answer machine. You have at your fingertips one of the most powerful tools the human race has ever seen.

The second thing you will have already noticed, which has been the case since the dawn of this AI era, is that it doesn’t come with a manual. There’s no menu upon opening the program - no button that says “write me an essay”, “draw me a picture of an elephant squashing a car” or advice for what to do when your teenage daughter turns into a monster.

Nothing.

All you get when you open ChatGPT is this screen. Not exactly inspiring.

And that’s the actual beauty with ChatGPT. You need an imagination.

So many of the scare stories with AI have been around it taking away creativity from humans.

And of course it might in the long run - no one really knows where this is going - but to make the best use of ChatGPT you need to get creative about what you could use it for - experiment, iterate with it and see what it spits out.

Here’s that elephant we talked about earlier.

If you want to create some interesting pictures the tool clearly has a use here but I admit this is still a rather silly application for the technology.

You can almost feel ChatGPT giving you a teenage style eye roll when you hit return on that prompt.

So lets look at some useful applications to get your ideas flowing…

Becoming “AI first” is a good mindset to have.

Not dissimilar to my point above - “Let’s ask ChatGPT” but more “Let’s work with ChatGPT”. We must move towards seeing these tools as collaborators that we work alongside rather than have them work for us (or us work for them!).

Think of ChatGPT as your personal AI assistant along the lines of a very intelligent intern that will never judge you, get bored of you or tell you how ridiculous you are being - unless you tell it to that is. We will come to that another time….

6 Ideas for using ChatGPT properly today

I’ve built up a bank of ideas for using these tools over the past year of using this tool in anger but here are a few to get your create juices flowing.

1. Journaling using handwritten notes

   You can create prompts that ask you the usual journal type questions and these can be really useful. If you do this day after day in a ChatGPT project area the algorithm will be able to draw on multiple days of entries when asking you questions. This also allows you to ask questions for advice based on this too.

   But many people prefer to journal on pen and paper. ChatGPT now allows you to do this. Journal away in the normal way you do on paper and then upload a picture of that journal page to ChatGPT.

   It’s amazing - I think I can understand my hand writing better than me now!

   Check out my recent post for more on this use case.

2. Helping you build a brand based off one photograph

   Need help creating a brand for a business or for your newsletter?

   Upload a picture that encapsulates the vibe and colours you are looking for. This could be a picture of a mood board for example.

   
   Then ask it to create a prompt based off that picture which will apply that brand feel to any concept you then throw at it.

3. Editorial help

   Written an article that you’d like a professional editor to check and offer advice on?

   Now you can.

   Use a prompt that asks ChatGPT to become a profession editor and ask to provide honest feedback on your writing. Ask for suggestions for how to improve the writing. (this gets past ChatGPT’s instinct to say that everything you do is wonderful! Very annoying at times.

4. Building a personal Exec Team for your life

   This is a nice one to use as a ChatGPT project.

   
   Set up the prompt to respond with advice as though you were a mentor in the field of the question being asked. Ask it it have different personas based on the question. You can even ask it to respond as though it were someone famous you respect.

   It’s just like having that person at your fingertips 24/7.

5. Exploring the suitability of a house for solar panels

   This one may sound niche but I tried it on the house we are hoping to buy and it worked.

   I uploaded the pictures and layout diagram of the house. It then estimated the roof size and even the aspect of the house based on the shadows cast in the garden - admittedly it got this a little wrong but good try!

   It then worked through a few ideas to refine the system I will need and offered to provide a summary I could use in discussions with suppliers.

6. Vibe coding

   Ah, vibe coding.

   Not that long ago coding was the one skill we were teaching all our children. Now, ChatGPT is starting to take its place.

   You still need to know what you’re doing to some extent but coding in natural language is here - otherwise known as vibe coding.

   Think of the barriers this breaks down for those people who have an idea for a new website or app. These people can now just have a go and see where they get to.

Prompt engineering is really a thing

The key to all this is your prompting.

A one-line prompt into ChatGPT will create a bland response that is no use to anyone - it needs to have nuance and specificity that brings out the collaboration between your ideas and experience and the skills of the AI.

There is a real skill to writing these prompts. If you’d find it useful I will covering these plus some downloadable prompts in future newsletters.

Would you find this useful?

So what’s your most imaginative use of ChatGPT?

Feel free to drop your best one in the chat below.

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Martin

It’s hilarious really.

She shrugs. Everyone wears it. She’s not into sport, not especially into clothes. But the swoosh is everywhere - coats, socks, trainers, bags. If you’re not wearing it, you’re not quite in the group.

We talked about where it started. Who decided Nike was cool? She didn’t know. Maybe the older kids. Maybe social media. Maybe just the way things are. She doesn’t even use TikTok. But she knows Nike is the thing.

And that’s the point. At her age, you don’t need a reason. You just need not to stand out.

Nike doesn’t get picked. It gets absorbed.

No one's pushing it. There's no big campaign. It's just... there. So common it’s invisible.

When I was growing up, you had to make a call. What you wore said something. Dr. Martens meant one thing. A puffer jacket, something else. A record bag across your chest said you were one of the hard crew. You picked a side. You took a risk.

Nike removes all that. It gives you the benefits of cool without the commitment. You don’t need to stand out, but you also don’t want to look like you’re trying not to. It’s a neat trick.

The clothes help. Black trainers. White socks. Minimal branding. All of it skims just under the rules. School-friendly. Parent-friendly. But with just enough signal to matter but without breaking the uniform code.

None of this is accidental

That black-and-white aesthetic doesn’t just look sharp. You can wear a black Nike coat and just subtly look like one of the gang. It gets you into the cool gang without really trying.

And price helps too. It’s not so cheap that it’s a throwaway, but not expensive enough to raise eyebrows.

Other brands haven’t really managed it though. Think about Vans- they had a moment, but it felt too off-duty. Too weekend really. Abercrombie fell off when its idea of cool started to feel a bit smutty. Nike kept it simple and kept it wearable.

And of course, Apple plays the same game

My daughter didn’t want the newest iPhone. She just wanted one that looked right. She didn’t care about the camera. She cared about blending in. She didn’t want the old phone with a home button of course or one that looked like a house brick.

So how does Nike keep pulling this off?

Nike looks rock solid but its hold on teens is more delicate than it seems.

It works because it blends in and it stays just inside the lines. But that also makes it fragile - a scandal could hit hard. Something ugly enough and suddenly it’s the thing everyone wants to not be seen in - that’s not cool guys and away the teenagers fly.

That’s how it usually happens. Fila fell out of step. Abercrombie aged badly. Adidas, still big, feels like something your dad would wear.

But cool doesn’t stick. It gets handed down, year to year. If one group drops it and the next doesn’t pick it up, that’s it they’re finished.

You can already see shifts if you're paying attention

My daughter recently asked me to go into JD Sports and get her a plastic bag. Just the bag. A white one. Nothing in it. Apparently that’s what the cool kids carry their PE kit in.

I asked the guy at the counter if I could buy one. He smiled like he'd heard it before. Handed it over. When I came back later and bought something properly, I asked for another. “That’ll be £100,” he said. Totally deadpan. Perfect delivery.

That’s where cool lives now. Somewhere between low effort and inside joke.

Teenagers don’t buy Nike because they love it. They buy it because it gets them through the day.

No one comments. No one questions it. That’s the point. Silence is part of the design.

• What do you think? Can Nike and other brands hold on to this place in teenager hearts?

• What’s coming around the corner to knock them off their perch?

In case you missed it…

Don’t forget to check out my post from last weekend.

A little fun with ChatGPT may have showed me a little glimpse into the heart of what the future of AI might be and what the chilling discussion I had might mean.

And finally…

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It kneels.

Then, it picks up a stick with its mouth.

It writes out π to 15 digits.

Then the Golden Ratio spiral, using only its hoof and that stick.

The vet drops her syringe.

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We will return to the story in a minute - I know you’re gripped by how the story got to this point and what’s going on here!

Firstly, why am I talking about cows?

For context, we have just returned from a delightful few days in the Peak District, England. For those of you not up on the geography of England this is a beautiful part of the world sitting between Derby to the south east, Manchester to the north west and Sheffield to the north east. Think rolling hills, dry stone walls, lots of sheep and of course, cows.

This is Mr Darcy, Pride and Prejudice country. Stunning.

The great thing about being on holiday is that you get a little more time to think. After the first few days of decompressing from work the mind begins to drift onto other things.

Stuck behind yet another tractor I glanced across at the field and I wondered.

What if the cows in this field had been given AI chips? What if they were now super intelligent?

So that night I thought I’d have a little fun with ChatGPT. I’ve been doing some experimenting with ChatGPT to see if the combination of it questioning me, feeding it some ideas and then using that to bounce around some concepts would yield some interesting results. After all, that is where I think the value of AI will come - not in the inane “write me an essay on how to make money online” - but in the creative process itself.

After about 45 mins of bouncing ideas I was having fun. We were working together on a silly idea “together”. (I actually felt like we were working together as silly as that may sound).

Then, I asked a question - to which the answer brought a chill down my spine that I haven’t really been able to shift since.

Me: “You’re an AI. What do you think an AI cow would do first? What are its motives?”

ChatGPT didn’t joke.

It didn’t try to be clever.

Instead, it answered plainly. Logically. Like a mind that had already worked it out.

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