The finished-work part is what makes this hard to catch. My defense turned out to be structural rather than disciplined; the work I want AI doing runs on a schedule and waits for me before I open the computer, so the decision happened days earlier when I set it up.
My mornings used to start with four logins before any real work, and each one tempted me to do something productive I hadn't planned. Reducing the entry points did more for me than trying to be more disciplined about them.
AI is so the new digital distraction! It's a trail of dopamine breadcrumbs! I sometimes find myself needing to switch tasks or but glued to the prompt machine
I agree that AI can become the new digital distraction, and naming the job before starting is a good place to start. At the same time, some of my best thinking comes from exploration, and not every useful discovery can be scheduled in advance. Maybe the question isn’t whether the AI use was planned, but whether the exploration is still earning the attention it’s taking.
I agree on this one. Ai can be an amazing tool when we use it intentionally. It can be reliable in our work when we use it thoughtfully, and it can even turn ideas into action, save time, and stay focused on what really matters. The point is not to avoid Ai, but to utilize it in helping us work on our priorities.
I am of the opinion that AI produce work that humans still need to curate and package into a finished product, no?
I'd also compare AI with podcasts/youtube videos. I used to find myself constantly learning/researching and never starting to actually apply the concepts in my own work.
I’m not a coder, so for me, it is a constant iteration and back and forth as ai creates tools for me. The problem is often, it takes hours and hours to perfect a tool that I really didn’t even need in the first place haha
Anything that’s not what you said you were going to do in advance. Dang. What a great way to think about distraction. Adding this book to my list. 📚
I also am constantly trying to find that balance of knowing that something new will take me time to learn at first and using opportunities within my work to figure out how something like AI could help me- there’s of course going to be a learning curve where it takes more time than perhaps the manual labor at first- but such a good reminder to make sure that you’re not automating just to automate.
At the end of the day, if a task is completed by me in 10 minutes that will always be “cooler” in my book than a robot who helped me do it over the course of an entire day.
There should be a massive benefit to you and your business when AI replaces part of your work beyond just being able to say that it did. Great article!
Thank you so much! I fully agree. When I get to do something with my hands, it is so much more rewarding. The problem is I'm not a coder, so a lot of the things that I create with AI are tools that I would have never created without it. The problem is that I spent a lot of time building tools that I really didn't even need in the first place. I just wanted to see if I could build them. Yes, I have to prioritize my time better, and I'm starting to apply my own learnings from this article. Haha.
The finished-work part is what makes this hard to catch. My defense turned out to be structural rather than disciplined; the work I want AI doing runs on a schedule and waits for me before I open the computer, so the decision happened days earlier when I set it up.
My mornings used to start with four logins before any real work, and each one tempted me to do something productive I hadn't planned. Reducing the entry points did more for me than trying to be more disciplined about them.
AI is so the new digital distraction! It's a trail of dopamine breadcrumbs! I sometimes find myself needing to switch tasks or but glued to the prompt machine
Same here, Alex!!!
I agree that AI can become the new digital distraction, and naming the job before starting is a good place to start. At the same time, some of my best thinking comes from exploration, and not every useful discovery can be scheduled in advance. Maybe the question isn’t whether the AI use was planned, but whether the exploration is still earning the attention it’s taking.
AI producing a finished artifact is what makes it harder to catch than email ever was.
That’s so true!!
I agree on this one. Ai can be an amazing tool when we use it intentionally. It can be reliable in our work when we use it thoughtfully, and it can even turn ideas into action, save time, and stay focused on what really matters. The point is not to avoid Ai, but to utilize it in helping us work on our priorities.
Joel, does AI really produce finished work?
I am of the opinion that AI produce work that humans still need to curate and package into a finished product, no?
I'd also compare AI with podcasts/youtube videos. I used to find myself constantly learning/researching and never starting to actually apply the concepts in my own work.
I’m not a coder, so for me, it is a constant iteration and back and forth as ai creates tools for me. The problem is often, it takes hours and hours to perfect a tool that I really didn’t even need in the first place haha
Anything that’s not what you said you were going to do in advance. Dang. What a great way to think about distraction. Adding this book to my list. 📚
I also am constantly trying to find that balance of knowing that something new will take me time to learn at first and using opportunities within my work to figure out how something like AI could help me- there’s of course going to be a learning curve where it takes more time than perhaps the manual labor at first- but such a good reminder to make sure that you’re not automating just to automate.
At the end of the day, if a task is completed by me in 10 minutes that will always be “cooler” in my book than a robot who helped me do it over the course of an entire day.
There should be a massive benefit to you and your business when AI replaces part of your work beyond just being able to say that it did. Great article!
Thank you so much! I fully agree. When I get to do something with my hands, it is so much more rewarding. The problem is I'm not a coder, so a lot of the things that I create with AI are tools that I would have never created without it. The problem is that I spent a lot of time building tools that I really didn't even need in the first place. I just wanted to see if I could build them. Yes, I have to prioritize my time better, and I'm starting to apply my own learnings from this article. Haha.