The fastest way to get time back isn't a new app. It's handing the boring first part of familiar tasks to an assistant and keeping the part that needs judgment for yourself. Here are five to try this week, with the check for each.
1. The first draft#
Reports, proposals, posts, replies. Give the assistant your notes, who it's for and what you want them to do after reading, and ask for a first draft. Then rewrite it in your own voice.
The check: would you sign it? If a sentence says nothing, cut it.
2. The summary#
Long email threads, meeting transcripts, reports you were meant to read.
The check: ask for the summary and the list of decisions, dates and numbers, then find each one in the original.
3. The spreadsheet#
Formulas you'd normally search for, cleaning messy columns, a first chart.
The check: test every formula on a few rows you can work out by hand before you trust it on a thousand.
4. The research brief#
Before a meeting or a decision: what is known, what is argued, what to ask.
The check: ask for sources with links, and open them. An assistant can invent a source as confidently as a fact.
5. The template#
The email you write every week, the checklist you rebuild every month, the reply you give to the same question.
The check: use it three times before you decide it's finished.
Measure it#
For one week, keep a short log with four columns:
- the task,
- the minutes it used to take,
- the minutes it took with AI, checking included,
- whether the result was good enough to use.
That log is your first experiment, and it is the proof you'll need for the next rung.
Where it goes wrong#
- Made-up facts. Names, numbers, quotes and links that look right and aren't.
- Private data in the wrong tool. Your workplace may have rules about which AI tools you can use. Follow them; if there are none, ask.
- Work that sounds right and says nothing. Fluent isn't the same as useful.
Next rung: turning the time you save into a better job, a raise or a first client.