Transcription
A few weeks ago, I started using this AI trick every single day, and honestly, it's absolutely changed my life. It only takes a few minutes every single day, but it could save you up to a few hours. So, the risk-reward in terms of doing this is extremely favorable.
In today's video, I'm going to break down what this trick is, why it's going to level up your productivity, and how you can start it today. If you enjoy content like this where I help you get the leg up using AI in your daily life, make sure to click the subscribe button and hit that post notification bell for weekly AI alpha.
So, what's the problem with most people and their productivity? Well, it's that they simply don't know where their time is going. Or they might think they have an idea, and I fell into this category, but I realized that once I started implementing this trick, I actually didn't know where my time was going. For you to get to the next level, for me to take my business to the next level, we have to be hyper-aware of where we're spending our time. Then we need to critically analyze it and reverse engineer a plan to become more productive and more efficient humans.
The good thing is, in the past, you had to write this down on potentially a notepad and, you know, make assertions by yourself. Now we have AI. It can do it automatically for you. It only takes a few minutes cumulatively per day, and you can take things to the next level.
So, what I want to talk about today is task logging and how I've used logging in conjunction with my personal executive assistant on ChatGPT to level up my productivity. Last Sunday, for example, I netted 10 hours of deep work, 14 hours of cumulative work, and I was able to get most of my high-leverage tasks for the week done because I implemented this system. So, it's something that I'm doing every single day to push myself to the next level and get better and better and better.
So, let me break down my system. My main to-do list is on ClickUp. ClickUp is just an application like Notion. You could also use Google Sheets, but I like the functionality and flexibility that ClickUp gives me. I write down all my high-leverage tasks in ClickUp. So, anything that's really important, like the super long-term objectives, you know, the big risks that you need to manage over time, all of this high-level stuff goes on ClickUp, tasks that aren't necessarily relevant today, but for the week.
Then, what I do is I use ChatGPT as my logging interface. I have an iPad next to me that sits next to me all day whilst I'm working at my desk. And I also have my iPhone with the action button, which has ChatGPT. And anytime a small thing comes to mind, I log it straight away into this dedicated assistant chat, which sits within my dedicated AI brain folder. For example, if I have a fleeting thought that, "Oh, you know, I actually have to buy a new cord because this cord's broken." I don't just think about that. I actually log it on ChatGPT, and it just takes all this mental load off. If I think, "Oh, you know, tomorrow I need to go to the store and buy this." I actually log that on ChatGPT so I don't need to think about it. It acts as my second brain and it handles all of those non-urgent or admin-based tasks so it doesn't take up mental load in my brain. Even if I have a high-leverage task that belongs on ClickUp, I'll also log it on ChatGPT and then I'll prompt it and ask it for the high-leverage task to add to my ClickUp so my dashboard reflects it. What I'll also do is periodically screenshot ClickUp to make sure it reflects onto ChatGPT as well.
The reason I run these dual systems is because one of them is the input layer and the other one is the visual layer because I still think Notion, ClickUp, and Sheets are a better way of visualizing all of your goals versus ChatGPT. Once it has all of this data, then I'm effectively able to prompt ChatGPT and ask it, "What are the highest leverage three things that I need to do today for this to be a successful day?" And if I'm feeling not in the mood to do anything super hard, let's say it's later in the day, but I still want to be productive. Instead of wasting time if I'm just sitting around on my couch scrolling on my phone, instead, I'll prompt it. I'll ask it what I can do. And on my phone, I'll just do little stuff like order stuff on Amazon, book a hotel room, just like stuff like this I can do from my phone. So I'm always moving the needle all day. And I've built this habit of going to this action button to constantly check my ChatGPT assistant to make sure I'm constantly moving the needle all day.
Now, this is where I get to the really high-leverage part. For this to actually be effective, ChatGPT needs to understand where you spend your time and what the pain points are because the tasks that you'll need to do to be effective for one person are going to be completely different from another person, and what you need to do on a certain day is going to be completely different from another day where the objectives change. So, what I started doing to make sure that it had the full scope on what I'm doing and where I'm utilizing my time is task logging. As I said earlier, you previously had to task log by writing stuff down. Now I can task log on ChatGPT. Let's head over to my office so I can show you exactly how I do this day-to-day.
All right, so this is the setup. I'll run through my productivity routine really quickly. We'll probably do like a full vlog or something on the vlog channel. We'll leave a link in the description if you want to see my vlogs. I go more into like my work and all that sort of stuff. But on the AI front, I have this iPad here open all day. It's my executive assistant. And if you've watched Horoszi, you'll probably think this is familiar. It's because I kind of copied him with this. But it's been a huge game-changer.
What I have is a little timer here. Now, this timer, it's like a few bucks on Amazon. You can scroll to the minute that you think a task will take. So, if I have a task, for example, "schedule tweets," and I have to write 10 tweets, I'll estimate the amount of time it takes. So, let's say 30 minutes. I'll press the timer, and then as I'm doing the task, I'll see if it actually took me the amount of time I thought it would take. And this actually helps you work out how long it takes to do something, which will make you more productive over time because you can actually time block better if you have awareness over what you're doing.
Once the task is done, I will pause the timer or if it runs out, I'll reset it. And then I will tell ChatGPT, I'll literally voice prompt it like this. I'll say, "Hey, it's 3:06. I just completed the X ideas." Now, at 3:07, I am beginning my accounting spreadsheet. I estimate that it will take me 1 hour. I'll check in with you once the task is done. So, you complete the old task, you look at what your next task is, and then you set up the next task. And this keeps a log all day. You don't need to do anything. This is why I said it's a few minutes a day because this just happens in the background. Obviously, you can go onto it and do more stuff on it if you want on your executive assistant. And I do that, but just the basic function of being aware of your time and then logging it on the iPad. And you can use a phone or a tab if you don't have an iPad. It's all the same thing. I just prefer this because it's open all day so I'm reminded to do it. It lowers friction if it's there so I'm reminded to do it.
This will just make you so much more productive. You'll be more aware of your time. You'll be more inspired and motivated because you know you have some accountability. You know, you're timing yourself. You've got this assistant that's kind of, it's not actually charging you, but it almost feels like it is. So it becomes almost this game to level up and get better and spend your time more efficiently. And I do this during my major work blocks. So I'll have one work block in the morning which is content-focused, and then I'll have one work block in the evening which is admin-focused, which is slower-paced but, you know, less important tasks. So I frontload my day with all the most important stuff.
So that's basically how I time log. And of course, once you have all this data, then you can start to use that data and ask ChatGPT questions like, "Where am I inefficiently using my time? What can be automated?" Let's say you want to use AI more but you don't know how. Cool. If you time block everything and give a brief explanation of the task, you'll actually be able to work out what's outsourcable. It might be like, you know, "You shouldn't be doing this. You should actually look into doing this instead." For example, if you're watching like a 60-minute podcast to do research, it might suggest, "Oh, actually, you should run that podcast through a transcript thing like Glass and then it'll summarize it for you." So then, all of a sudden, you're actually cutting down the time it takes to do the tasks. How do you know if a task is a problem if you don't know how much time it takes? That is the bottom line of this entire system.
All right, so we're back in the studio now, and I want to summarize why this actually works. The reason why this works is because once you have an awareness of your time, you have control over your time. Think of this as counting calories. You don't need to do it forever, but if you do it for a small period of time, then you're going to understand the habits. You're going to understand the wastage, and then you're going to have the data to be able to tweak things going forward.
Small tweaks can lead to big productivity gains over time because productivity is compounding. It's not whether you're productive one day or whether you do something important one day. It's these little minutes and hours every single day that compound into bigger things. For example, if you make up an extra hour a day, that could be 5 to 7 hours a week that you're working that you're gaining on other people in the same role. If you're in the running for a promotion, this extra work can give you the huge leg up over a long period of time. If you're an entrepreneur, this can give you a huge leg up over your competition over a long period of time. And that's why logging tasks becomes such an effective habit to do at least for a couple of weeks. I recommend the more productive you are, the more financial opportunities you open to yourself, the more mental power and mental bandwidth you open to yourself to become more productive. And but not just that, also generally happier in life and more organized in life.
It's not a long habit. It probably only cumulatively takes you a few minutes a day, especially if you have ChatGPT open all day, but it can have massive effects on the trajectory of your life over many months and many years. So, that is the trick I wanted to share with you today. If you enjoyed this video, make sure to subscribe for more AI alpha. This channel is dedicated to giving you the edge in AI to become the best version of yourself humanly possible. I'll see you in the next one. He's our guys.