How AI Is Slowing Me Down
(Continued from above)
AI is available everywhere. You can use it on your laptop, in your browser, in your writing tools.
It's even on our phones and you can talk to it with no typing required.
The friction is almost zero β which means it's incredibly easy to just... keep going. One more follow-up question, then one more "ooh, what if I tried it this way."
Opening one more tab and starting another thread.
I've caught myself spending 45 minutes in a conversation with Claude or ChatGPT then walking away with something only marginally better than what I had at the 10-minute mark. The tool kept suggesting new directions.
π€ Want me to try a different angle? How about a shorter version? What if we added a story here?
And being the curious people-pleaser I am I kept saying yes.
Of course it's not the AI's fault, but the tool made it really easy to feel productive without actually finishing anything.
This reminds me of a concept from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. He draws a line between being "in motion" and taking action.
- Motion is planning, strategizing, researching.
- Action is the behavior that actually delivers an outcome.
Paraphrasing his examples...
- If you go to the gym and ask about getting a personal trainer, that's Motion. If you step under the bar and start lifting weights, that's Action.
- If you outline 20 ideas for YouTube videos you want to make, that's Motion. If you actually record and publish one, that's Action.
Here's the distinction:
Motion makes you feel like you're getting things done, and in some cases the steps you take may even be necessary. But ultimately you're just preparing to get something done. You'll never achieve your goal until you start taking Action.
ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are the greatest enablers of Motion that have ever existed.
For YouTube specifically, you will get zero results until you start publishing videos.
But before hitting record you can get stuck researching camera gear, rewriting your script five times, brainstorming 30 video ideas, generating thumbnails, outlining a whole content calendar, redesigning your backdrop, planning outfits...
All of that can feel like serious progress, but none of it will get you to your goals alone.
To be clear, I'm not saying to stop using AI. It's part of how I can run this business in 20 hours a week. But I've started putting a limit on how long I'll go back and forth before I just ship the thing.
Worth asking about the next time you've been chatting for a while...
"Is this process actually getting me toward my goal?"
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