In today’s episode, I walk through my current daily layout in the MD Notebooks I am currently loving (Jetpens; Amazon – latter is affiliate link). Here you go!
Prompt I used to generate the schedule shown above:
(Yes, it’s a bit stream of conscious. But it contains hard landscape items, everything I wanted to get done, and time estimates for each task.)
Today: scheduled: 6:30 kids/get ready 7:15 drive kids 8:20ish home. between now and 630 mostly morning routine stuff but potentially could do a patreon post too. during day: 12p hopkins presentation #2 (need 15 min prep); 3p BLPA2.0 (need 30 min prep). 6:45 leave for Pilates, 7p-8p pilates, then read in car until gym pickup at 850. may pick up G from tutor ~5:50. TO DO: sales tax + nanny tax (30 min); draft BLPL email (15 min); blog post (30 min); patreon post (15 min); inbox zero (30 min max, already pretty clean); review nested goals workbook (60 min? could be pushed forward but would love to get done); record BLP ep (60 min to write + record); record 1 hour CME (decided to do one hour on 10/19 so will adjust work plan). tiny things: pay G & A; text Amanda about G’s school project, shop for Kae bday gift (jet pens?), text colleagues about spa day Sunday to confirm. would like a walk in there too!
(Kae already got her bday gift so this contains no spoilers, ha!)
Then, I discuss several planning tactics that help alleviate anxiety. This was my own personal pep talk pre-call week, and I have to say that it worked pretty well!
NOTES:
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12 Comments
I am so sorry to be the voice of negativity here… but it seems like the primary purpose of using AI is to make your schedule appear “pretty” and to enable you another form of organization procrastination. The prompt suggests that you already fully know what needs to be done, when you have to do it, and how much time each item will take… so. Also, typing out that list, printing out the aesthetic schedule… took you a few minutes. Your handwritten ones are prettier anyway, and a source of stress relief innately, like someone who draws or colors for relaxation might get. What else are you getting out of this?
*Getting ready to be pelted in the comments!!**
I won’t pelt but for some reason seeing it laid out like this has helped me immensely! Plus it has helped with showing that yes, it actually fits (something harder for me to visualize). Or sometimes they don’t fit and can go back and forth. I see it as me having all the puzzle pieces and then having a tool to see how they could fit. But your points are reasonable and this is not for everyone!
PS: it’s the “when in the day” piece it is answer for me far more quickly than I would be able to decide and eliminating the fight with myself about what to do first, which often leads to me picking the easiest thing, because who feels like tackling a hard thing? Moving 15 moving parts around within an 8 hour time frame isn’t something that comes as easily to me bc it’s more of a calculator function I think? Again – definitely going to be an individual thing as to how much this helps. Some people would probably take one look at a robot generated schedule and want to do absolutely anything else.
I do agree it can help with task prioritization… but if I did this myself, I’d probably still reject the ChatGPT schedule if I didn’t want to do what it suggested. And then I’d spend 30 min arguing with AI rather than just getting work done. Haha.
I could totally see that 🙂 I think this probably fits “upholder” types best. Josh (questioner) for example would not enjoy this. (I do not do it on clinical days btw – no point bc it’s largely reactive work!)
Hello! I am a new listener and just finished your (excellent) book. Just wanted to say that, despite my heavy AI skepticism, I’ve had great experiences using AI as a “puzzle solver” for my schedule and also for other parts of my life (meal planning with what I have already in the pantry, for example). I like this framing! AI is not doing the thinking, it’s doing the “fitting” to what we already have, whether it’s time in the day or food in the fridge!
I really appreciated your framing on this topic.
Thank you so much and so glad you enjoyed the book!!!
Sarah, appreciated the end of this podcast about anxiety. Knowing when breaks are coming, or “recharge weekends” as I call them, really helps.
This is amazing! I think that I too would enjoy having a schedule made for me and not have the struggle to decide what to do first. (Although I also wonder if part of me will rebel at having the AI schedule). I am going to try it and I’m setting up my prompt now. Already I have a valuable insight – I have no idea how long many of my tasks will take.
Here are some questions:
Did you pre-check the total of your hours and minutes to be sure that they would all fit within the available time?
What was your initial prompt to AI? – I imagine something like “ make a schedule for the day based on the following following information“
What would you do if a task took longer than the allocated time? I can imagine that some tasks will be easy for me to just stop and then pick up again next time – for example 15 minutes on inbox zero would be fine and if I didn’t finish I’d be happy to postpone the rest. But for some tasks I find that I get focused and find it difficult to stop until the task is finished. If I did stop halfway through, I would feel frustrated and resent having to reload the topic into my mind next time and remember where I was up to. I might be so focused that I wouldnt even notice the sound of a timer! What did you do if you were unable to finish a topic in the allocated time?
I also love the idea of using this idea of“fitting“ to plan a menu to use items in the fridge or pantry.
Thankyou for this! It’s going to be fun trying.
Honestly I think I just said “make me a schedule” – you’ll see, there will be enough natural back and forth feedback that you’ll figure it out. feel free to paste a graphic of my schedule in there (can just screenshot the photo) to give it an example, if you’d like! I am generally someone who gives GENEROUS time allocations so I don’t usually run out of time (example – I’ll put 15 min to write an email when honestly it doesnt’ typically take that long) so I haven’t run into that a lot, but I think if you ARE someone who tends to underestimate you may want to include that in your prompt! And remember it’s not a set in stone schedule 🙂 I’ve had to make SIGNIFICANT adjustments for life events and that’s ok — it’s GOING to happen!! Give it a try and play with it – spirit of iteration here!
Thanks Sarah – it is working well for me. I have a tendency to procrastinate – I have a long procrastination list – and life events of past couple of years have meant I have grief, a huge amount of stuff to organise, and a frequent feeling of overwhelm – all of which means it is very helpful to have this AI assistance to reduce the number of decisions I need to make. You are absolutely right – it gives plenty of feedback and I’m finding it simply a fun approach, with no overheads. Thanks again!
Yay – I am so glad you’re finding it helpful!!!