How AI Can Sharpen Your Thinking & Free Up Your Time
Most people think AI is just for answering quick questions. But not us.
Most people think AI is just for answering quick questions. But the reality? AI can sharpen your thinking, speed up your workflow, and remove a lot of the busywork that clutters your day—allowing you to focus on what you love.
The problem? 95% of people don’t understand how to use AI properly. They type one sentence into ChatGPT, expect a life-changing response, and then say AI “doesn’t work.”
Here’s the truth: AI is a skill.
Like any skill, it takes learning, practice, and implementation before it starts making a difference in your business. So today, I’m giving you a mini-masterclass on how to get started the right way.
You’ll walk away with:
A better understanding of how AI can fit into your workflow
Journaling prompts to help you uncover AI-powered shortcuts
A framework for writing AI prompts that deliver useful results
Ready? Let’s go.
Step 1: How Can You Use AI?
The first step to making AI useful? Figuring out exactly what you need it for. Here’s your AI self-assessment exercise:
📝 Grab a notebook (or open a doc) and answer these questions:
What do you do every day? (List out your common tasks.)
Which parts of your work do you love and never want to give up?
Which parts do you hate and would automate in a heartbeat?
What repetitive tasks do you do over and over again?
Where do you feel like you’re wasting time?
What areas of your work require creativity vs. just busywork?
Once you have your answers, look at the tasks that:
Feel repetitive
Take up too much time
Don’t require deep thinking
Those are the perfect places to start using AI.
Step 2: AI Won’t Work Well If You Don’t Prompt It Correctly
Typing "write a blog post for me" into AI and expecting magic is like telling a chef "make food" and expecting a gourmet meal. It doesn’t work that way.
The solution? Better prompts.
The 5-Part Formula for Writing Effective AI Prompts
A great AI prompt has these elements:
1️⃣ System: Define who AI should act as. (e.g., "You are an expert copywriter.")
2️⃣ Context: Provide background information. ("I run a digital agency helping e-commerce stores.")
3️⃣ Instructions: Be clear about what you want. ("Write an engaging LinkedIn post that teaches people about AI automation.")
4️⃣ Examples (Optional): If you have a style in mind, show AI an example.
5️⃣ Constraints: Set boundaries. ("Keep it under 200 words. Use a casual tone.")
Step 3: The Ultimate Prompt—A Prompt for Writing Prompts
If you ever feel stuck, use this meta-prompt to generate a better prompt:
👉 "I need a high-quality AI prompt for [task]. It should include a clear system role, detailed instructions, relevant context, and formatting preferences to ensure accuracy. Please generate an optimized prompt that will result in actionable, useful responses."
Want an example? Let’s say you need AI to help you write social media content. You could use this:
🔹 "You are a social media strategist helping online entrepreneurs increase engagement. Create a content calendar with five engaging post ideas per week. Each post should be conversational, actionable, and formatted for LinkedIn. Focus on AI and automation."
Better inputs = Better results. Every time.
Step 4: Test, Refine, & Build Your AI Toolkit
Now that you’ve identified what you can use AI for and how to write better prompts, here’s what to do next:
🔹 Create a “Prompt Library” – Save prompts that work so you don’t reinvent the wheel.
🔹 Refine your approach – Test your prompts, tweak them, and note what improves results.
🔹 Automate the boring stuff – Start small. Let AI handle repetitive tasks, while you focus on creativity.
For example, last week, I laid out some struggles I’d been having in business.
I outlined what I was currently doing, gave some statistics and background, and asked for help.
Chat and I went back and forth, asking questions, refining my thoughts, and clarifying ideas.
By the end of the process, I had:
✅ A clear path forward
✅ New daily practices to keep me on track
✅ A worksheet and checklist (which AI helped format)
I even decided to take these insights into a new conversation and use Tasks to create reminders for myself. (More on that in a later post!)
But here’s another way AI saved me even more time:
Today, I vibe-coded a WordPress plugin to export data for an OpenAI assistant I’m creating for a chatbot.
Yes, I have coding experience, but AI made the process ridiculously fast.
All I had to do was explain:
What I wanted to achieve
The database tables and fields to work with
The expected format of the export file (JSON)
Why? Because I had wasted more than a week waiting for support from a paid plugin—and they still couldn’t deliver what I needed.
So instead of waiting around, I built my own solution.
🚀 In one afternoon, I:
✔ Switched to a new plugin
✔ Created my own export plugin
✔ Exported the data
✔ Uploaded it to my AI assistant
✔ Got my proof-of-concept chatbot ready for testing
The best part? I didn’t miss my deadline.
And that paid plugin? They lost out. Even though I paid for the pro version, I won’t be using it. AI empowered me to take control instead of waiting.
The point? AI isn’t just a time-saver—it’s a game-changer.
Now it’s your turn:
What’s one challenge you’d love to use AI to solve? Hit reply and let me know!
Brilliant!