AI can save time and spark ideas — but it can also overwhelm. These strategies help you use it with intention: knowing when not to, keeping chats organised, tailoring responses, triaging tasks outside the app, and remembering that your weeks are finite.
Summary: Set “STOP AFTER 3” reminders in ChatGPT. Create separate projects with descriptive titles like “2024-08 Blog ideas.” Add custom instructions: “Keep responses under 100 words, use bullet points.” Create an “AI inbox” for ideas that need review before becoming real tasks. Set a 20-minute timer and do something physical when it goes off.
The paradox of AI
You open ChatGPT to write one quick email. Two hours later, you’ve drafted a content calendar, outlined a course you might never build, and generated seventeen different subject lines. Sound familiar?
AI promises productivity but the more you use it, the more it can feel like another inbox: endless, noisy, never done. Each prompt generates more ideas, more tasks, more options. Instead of freeing you, it can leave you feeling scattered.
Start with intention, not impulse
I once asked ChatGPT for a character count on a sentence. Got back three paragraphs about optimal length, readability limits, and phrasing suggestions. All I wanted was the number.
That’s the catch with AI: unless you tell it otherwise, it assumes more is better. Often you need less thinking, not more. A quick count, a simple decision, a straightforward answer.
Before opening that chat window, ask: “Will AI actually save me time here, or will I spend longer crafting the prompt or re-prompting, than just doing the thing? (or using another tool)”
Pro tip: Write “STOP AFTER 3” at the top of new ChatGPT conversations. When you see it, ask yourself: Am I solving the original problem, or just playing with prompts?
Turn your chat history into a searchable library
My friend Stacey* has 847 untitled ChatGPT conversations. She knows there’s a great recipe buried somewhere, but finding it would take longer than cooking from scratch.
*Okay fine, it’s me. I’m Stacey.
Create dedicated spaces for different types of work. I now keep separate ChatGPT projects for “Client work,” “Personal writing,” and “Learning stuff.” Each conversation gets a real title the moment I start it — not “New chat” but “Newsletter draft – productivity tips” or “Research: sustainable packaging options.”
Delete anything you won’t revisit. Your chat history isn’t a museum; it’s a tool.
Pro tip: If you name conversations with dates and keywords (“2024-08 Blog ideas” or “Nov client proposals”), you’ll actually be able to search and find them later.
Train AI to give you what you actually need
Default ChatGPT sounds like an eager intern who’s read every business book ever written. “Here’s a comprehensive overview…” it begins, then delivers three paragraphs when you needed three bullet points.
You can change this. In ChatGPT’s settings, add Custom Instructions like: “Keep responses under 100 words unless I ask for more. No preambles or disclaimers. If I ask for ideas, give me a numbered list.”
AI stops being chatty and starts being useful.
Pro tip: For quick decisions, try: “Give me 3 options with pros and cons, 1 sentence each.” You’ll get clarity, not essays.
Don’t let AI become your new boss
I once asked Claude to brainstorm blog topics and got 47 ideas back. For a moment, I felt productive. But in reality I’d given myself 47 new things to feel guilty about not doing.
AI is generous with suggestions, but terrible at prioritising them. When assessing generated ideas, paste them somewhere neutral first — a “maybe” list, a notebook, anywhere but your main to-do list. Then ask: Does this actually fit with what I’m trying to achieve this month?
Pro tip: Create an “AI inbox” in your task manager. Ideas go there first, get reviewed weekly, and only the genuinely useful ones graduate to real projects.
Your time is finite — spend it wisely
Oliver Burkeman calculated that most of us get around 4,000 weeks in life. Don’t spend them month fine-tuning prompts for a project you’ll never finish.
Every hour you spend in a ChatGPT rabbit hole is an hour not walking with your dog, calling your parents, playing with your kids, or sitting quietly with a cup of coffee. AI can give you time back, but only if you don’t get lost in it.
The most productive people I know use AI for 10-15 minutes, get what they need, then close the tab.
Keep yourself in the driver’s seat
The best collaboration I had with AI recently was writing a tricky client email. I wrote the first messy draft, asked Gemini (our workplace tool of choice) to help with tone and structure, then rewrote it in my own voice. The AI helped, but I stayed in charge.
Ask for starting points, not finished products. Let it handle the boring bits — reformatting, basic research, first drafts — while you make the decisions that matter. This keeps you engaged instead of passive.
Pro tip: If ChatGPT remembers things about your projects between chats, check what it’s storing occasionally. I found it had noted that I “prefer casual tone and short paragraphs” which was helpful, but also “working on 12 different business ideas” which… wasn’t.
Making it work for you
AI works best when you treat it like any other tool — useful for specific jobs, but not the center of your work life. Set it up thoughtfully, use it with intention, then put it away.
The goal isn’t to become an AI power user. It’s to handle routine tasks quickly so you have more time and mental space for the work that actually requires a human — your creativity, judgment, and the messy, imperfect, wonderful process of figuring things out as you go.
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