Using AI to Save 10+ Hours a Week: My Productivity Hacks

Did you know that integrating AI into your daily workflow can free up over ten hours each week? In this post, I share personal productivity hacks using AI tools to streamline tasks and boost efficiency.

Introduction to Everyday AI

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Everyday AI, where I document how AI tools have revolutionized my productivity across entrepreneurship, writing, and content creation. By adopting a cross-context learning approach—borrowing techniques from diverse fields—I’ve learned to harness AI’s power, saving myself at least ten hours a week. Whether you’re an AI novice or exploring new applications for your daily routine, my journey offers practical insights you can adapt.

Use Case 1: Writing Efficiency

Writing underpins everything I do, from email newsletters to YouTube scripts. To accelerate my writing process, I follow a three-step AI-driven workflow:

1. Voice Input: I capture ideas using VoicePal, an app my team developed. While walking or away from my desk, I record raw thoughts—free from the pressure of a blank page.
2. AI Assistance: I feed these recordings into ChatGPT or Claude. These AI models structure my ideas, pose follow-up questions, and uncover angles I might miss.
3. Final Edits: I transfer the AI-generated draft into Notion, where I refine the tone, add personal anecdotes, and align the content with my voice.

For instance, I recently explored “going through the motions” to overcome procrastination. By prompting VoicePal with targeted questions, I quickly generated a series of insights and anecdotes, reducing my writing time from roughly two hours to just one.

Beyond these steps, I experiment with different prompt styles: open-ended questions yield narrative-driven content, while list-based prompts accelerate bullet-point ideas. For team memos, I record discussion points in VoicePal, ask Claude to draft an executive summary, and then refine in Notion. That process cuts summary drafting from 45 minutes to under 10. This method scales across different writing formats—from blog posts to technical documents—demonstrating AI’s versatility in streamlining diverse writing tasks.

The Writing Process in Detail

Writing with AI is collaborative rather than hands-off. I keep the core ideas firmly mine, using AI to amplify and clarify them. Here’s how:

• I pose prompts like “What emotional barriers do I face?” or “Can you share a personal story illustrating this technique?”
• I compare outputs from both Claude and ChatGPT, running multiple iterations until one draft stands out.
• Once I have a solid draft—typically 80% there—I paste it into Notion and polish it manually, adjusting subheadings and trimming filler.

This iterative cycle creates a seamless exchange between human creativity and AI-driven structure, making writing more authentic and significantly faster.

"The goal of using AI tools is to help me pull ideas from myself, not to have the AI do the work for me."

Use Case 2: Analyzing Data

I treat AI as a personal data analyst, especially useful for crunching spreadsheets or CSV files. Recently, I downloaded a year’s worth of YouTube analytics and tasked Claude with suggesting video ideas to maximize views and subscriber growth. The result? A curated list of high-impact topics, all generated within seconds. This data analysis workflow helps me stay ahead of trends without getting bogged down in spreadsheets.

I often follow up analysis by asking for deeper insights: after an initial list of video ideas, I request level two and level three elaborations, such as optimal title structures or micro-optimization strategies. AI suggested aiming for 30–40 minute videos and provided a title-structure matrix, which I adapted to my channel. This iterative back-and-forth elevates simple data interpretation into strategic planning, helping me make data-driven content decisions rather than relying on gut feelings.

Use Case 3: Subject Lines and Brainstorming

Crafting compelling email subject lines is crucial for open rates. I use Notion AI’s slash commands: after drafting my newsletter, I press Command+J and ask for ten subject line suggestions. For example, after writing about procrastination, AI proposed titles like “How to Trick Your Brain into Productivity” and “The Simple Ritual to Beat Procrastination.” I then paste these into ChatGPT or Claude for a larger batch—twenty more ideas—filter by tone and length, and choose the one that best resonates. This approach saves me 10–15 minutes per newsletter, compared to starting from scratch.

Additionally, AI brainstorming helps me generate listicle ideas, podcast topics, and even social media captions. By feeding a brief outline into AI, I quickly produce dozens of concepts, then cherry-pick the top five. This method turns a previously hour-long brainstorming session into a productive ten-minute sprint.

Using AI for Everyday Life

AI isn’t limited to writing and data; it enriches my everyday experiences too. During a trip to Taiwan, I used AI as a personal tour guide:

• I pointed my phone at Liberty Square’s National Theater and Concert Hall to learn their history.
• I asked about Taiwan’s rise as a semiconductor powerhouse, gaining real-time insights into this global industry.
• At temples, I inquired about local customs like using moon blocks, getting instant cultural context.

Interactive AI made exploring more engaging than standard search engines, turning each question into an on-the-spot learning moment.

Conclusion

Embracing AI tools in writing, data analysis, and daily life can unlock significant time savings and elevate your productivity. If you’re building a business, tools like Shopify integrate AI-powered marketing and inventory insights, making it easier to manage commerce alongside content creation.

Actionable takeaway: Start by integrating one AI tool into a routine task—be it drafting an email, analyzing a dataset, or planning your next trip—and measure the time you save each week.

Now it’s your turn: how are you using AI to boost your productivity? Share your experiences in the comments below, and stay tuned for the next episode of Everyday AI.