AI agents are cool and promise great things — but do not succumb to the rapid rise in cognitive deskilling across the labour market. I have outlined a few ideas for you to consider and adopt if they suit your needs.

The first whole week of January has come and gone, and with it has come the usual hum of the knowledge worker. The return to normalcy has meant emails, meetings, and instant messenger notifications galore. But what if there was a better way? What if this new year, we, as knowledge workers in the digital age, sought out a better, deeper way to engage with our work?

To kick off 2026, this weekend, I sought out some of the simplicity described in Henry David Thoreau’s Walden.

I have often struggled to decide what content to consume. If you are like me, hopefully the ideas in this post can help, as they have helped me.