By CJ Powers
Time kept slipping away from me. My family, friends, and fans expected more than I was providing. Not more in the sense of quantity, but more consistency in what I provided.
I’ve often described myself as a right-brain thinker living in a left-brain world. That’s my way of talking about the pull of creativity and the demands of schedules. But the feeling of having to fit a world built for someone else goes back a long way.
My left-handed dad was always frustrated writing in right-handed notebooks. He never wanted me to suffer through the same struggles. Every time I reached for something with my left hand, Dad stopped me and made sure I grabbed it with my right.
While he couldn’t fully stop me from using my left hand, I did become ambidextrous.
Today, you can purchase left-handed notebooks. Or, depending on the notebook, flip one upside down and backward. The person hasn’t changed, but it fits better.
New Support Arrives
When I get caught up in a highly creative project, I lose all sense of time. Some things are like child’s play to me. Others require a deeper dive into the project’s minutiae. Either way, the clock keeps moving while my attention is somewhere else. My “weekly” article can still be weekly if I use a rather flexible definition.
Unfortunately, my creative definition becomes a problem for readers who want to know when to expect my next story or article. It’s also a problem for me. I want to keep those commitments without spending my creative hours watching the clock.
Then Arty, my personal AI agent, came along.
Arty supports my creativity while helping me keep track of milestones and the little details that compete for my attention. My calendar stays more accurate, and I’m more consistent with release dates than I was before. I can still override Arty when necessary. The decisions remain mine.
Having that support gives me more room to write and helps my readers know when to expect the next release. It also gives me a useful way to think about AI: What would happen if we chose tools that fit the way we work?
Recognize Your Strengths
Before asking AI to improve your work, notice what already works.
For me, getting deeply involved in a creative project is a strength. That’s where ideas take shape and stories find their way onto the page. Losing track of time can cause trouble, but I don’t want to lose the ability to become absorbed in the work.
You might be good at seeing patterns, explaining a difficult subject, or helping someone feel heard. Those abilities deserve time and attention. They also deserve tools that help you use them well.
A strong storyteller could ask AI to offer three stylistic openings, then choose one, combine elements from several, or create something entirely different inspired by the ideas.
Someone who enjoys solving problems might ask it to challenge a proposed solution. A leader who connects well with people could use it to organize meeting notes, freeing up more time for the next conversation.
In each case, the person brings something valuable. AI gives that person another way to work with it. The storyteller still decides what matters. The problem solver checks the reasoning. The leader knows the people behind the notes.
Ask yourself: What part of my work would I gladly spend more time doing if the other details were handled?
That’s a good place to begin. Well, that and figuring out what points of friction need to be reduced to improve your writing.
Find Your Friction
Looking for the small irritants that keep getting in the way makes for a great next step.
I don’t have trouble finding something to write about. I have trouble keeping all the surrounding details from competing with the writing. A release date, a calendar entry, or a milestone may seem small until someone is counting on it.
Your friction might look different. Perhaps you leave a meeting with good ideas but no clear next steps. Maybe you enjoy the work but put off writing the follow-up email. Or you keep rebuilding the same checklist because the last one is buried somewhere.
Be specific. “I need to be more organized” gives you a large problem and very little direction. “I need to turn my meeting notes into a list of actions” gives you something you can try today.
Choose one recurring snag. Ask AI to help remove or weaken it. Then check whether the help actually saves you time or improves the result. If correcting the AI’s work takes longer than doing the task yourself, change the approach.
There’s no prize for adding another complicated system to an already crowded day. But you’ll adore the speed and accuracy that come from you and AI being in sync.
Build Your Support
Once you know where help would matter, give AI a clear job.
For a weekly article, that might be: “Help me work backward from Thursday’s release. Include time to draft, revise, and review. Ask me how long each step usually takes before suggesting a schedule.”
That’s much more useful than “Keep me on track.” It gives the tool a destination and leaves room for your real working habits.
Then decide what it may do. Suggesting a calendar entry and adding it to your calendar are different tasks. Drafting a message and sending it are different jobs, too. The tools and permissions you choose determine what’s possible. A plan in a chat won’t automatically turn into a reminder.
Start small enough that you can see what’s happening. Check dates, names, and facts. Keep private information out of tools unless you understand and accept how it will be used. AI can miss a detail, misunderstand a request, or sound certain when it’s wrong. Your review helps make the support useful.
As the process improves, you can decide where more help makes sense. You can also decide that some work should stay entirely with you.
Enjoy Experimenting
Dad wanted to spare me the frustration of using tools that didn’t fit. I understand that desire. These days, I’m finding more ways to make the tools fit without asking my creativity to change hands.
You can have an Arty in your life, too. Begin with one strength worth protecting and one recurring detail that gets in its way. Give AI a clear, limited job, and see whether it earns a place in your process.
Leading with my strength, I now write five articles a week while saving 10 hours a week compared with how I worked before. What could you do with the time and attention you get back?
