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The finding that stopped me was not about productivity.

It was a pattern AI identified in how I ended difficult emails — a specific linguistic habit I’d developed, apparently, for softening bad news that was actually undermining every piece of bad news I’d ever delivered.

I’d been doing it for years. In hundreds of emails. To clients, colleagues, partners.

I had no idea.

Why I Did This

I’d been feeling vaguely ineffective in my email communication for about six months.

Not failing — vaguely ineffective. A sense that things were taking longer to resolve than they should, that responses to my messages were occasionally missing the point, that certain client relationships were draining more energy than the work itself warranted.

I’d attributed it to the clients. To the complexity of the situations.…