I Tried to Procrastinate This Morning, But Claude Wouldn't Let Me.

5 surprisingly useful ways AI helps me get out of my own way.

The Bellagio - Vegas! 🥳

‘You lack priorities, not information. Problems are easy to solve if you know what you’re after.’

This is a quote from Alex Hormozi that sent me straight into classic creator procrastination this morning.

Having been doomscrolling through LinkedIn yesterday I broke a cardinal rule and left the app open on my computer so that quote was the first thing I saw when I opened my laptop this morning. 🙄 (Note to self - close all apps before bed!)

So, fresh cup of tea in hand, I went straight to Claude.

“Right Claude’, I determinedly typed, “let’s just run through my strategy and plan for the rest of the year to make sure I’ve really got my priorities nailed.”

Claude pushed back:

“You don’t have a plan problem.” It said.

“You already have the plan. You named it, you stress-tested it, you locked it in May. So why are you here again asking for another version?”

It then listed my plan back to me, (the one that I’d already committed to during my last creator procrastination session.)

Then it said:

“When your brain gets overwhelmed, it reaches for replanning instead of executing. A fresh plan feels like progress and costs almost no energy, which is exactly why it’s so tempting. The hunt for the perfect plan is your avoidance. No plan will ever feel final and absolute enough, because finality isn’t a feature of the plan, it’s a decision you make and then defend.”

I was rumbled (and a little relieved).

Two hours of “planning” was about to disappear into a black hole, and the work I needed to do wouldn’t have got done.

Instead, here I am, writing this post.

Which got me thinking. I see a lot of posts about how to use AI as a writing assistant. Generate posts, outline articles, draft emails, etc. But the real magic isn’t asking AI to write for you. It’s using it to help you show up better.

Here are 5 ways I’m using AI to get more done, day-to-day:

1. Holding Me Accountable

This is the one that just earned its keep this morning. I’ve uploaded a doc to Claude with my goals, my rules, my one thing. Now when I open a session and start drifting (replanning what’s already planned, or chasing something shiny), it calls me out.

AI has become known as a yes-machine. And yes, push it hard enough and it will generally agree with everything you tell it. But if you give it explicit permission to tell you No, it will agree to that also!

Try this: open a text file or note, write down your three most important commitments and goals, plus a line that says “If I come back here asking to replan, re-strategise, or refocus anything you’ve already helped me lock in - push back. Don’t let me waste my energy.”

Save it as a .txt or .pdf. Upload it to Claude or ChatGPT. Let it do its job.

2. Voice-to-Page Without Sitting at a Desk

This post you’re reading right now? I typed very little of it.

I dictated the whole thing into an app called Letterly, which transcribes my voice into text. Then I paste the transcript into Claude and ask it to turn my dictation into a structured article.

And because the words are mine, spoken in my voice, the draft comes out sounding almost exactly like me. I then go in, strip out any AI-isms (the “it’s not this, it’s that” patterns, extra words it sneakily adds), and what’s left is a post that’s properly mine, written in a fraction of the time. (see what I did there 😉)

Super useful when I’m travelling and can’t always have the laptop perfectly balanced on my lap.

3. As a Thinking Partner

This one is probably the one that covers the most ground for me on a daily basis. (Being the over thinker I am)

Sometimes I have a few ideas about a post but I’m not sure which angle to come at it from. I’ll throw them into Claude and ask for a few possible angles, hooks, or opening lines.

I almost never use any of them as-is. But seeing them on the page breaks what I call ‘blank page syndrome’. Suddenly I can see which ones don’t work, which means I can see what the right angle actually is.

Also if I’ve got an opinion brewing but can’t quite articulate what it is, or I’m wrestling with a decision I’m not ready to name out loud yet, talking it through with Claude, getting it to ask clarifying questions, and helping me to process my thoughts, can clear my menopausal fog.

None of this is AI writing for me. It’s AI helping me to untangle the thoughts in my brain.

4. Compressing Research

You know how we say ‘what did we do before google maps?’ when we expertly navigate our way somewhere new. (Just me?)

Well, that’s what I now say about AI when it gives me the names, dates, and historical perspective when I’m writing a more complex travel post, or helps me work through a new tax rule, or even work out how a new platform feature works (although ChatGPT regularly gets new features wrong - Gemini is far superior for that task!)

Before AI, I’d lose two hours to Google or YouTube, have tabs open everywhere, and be reading half-relevant articles, or forum threads from 2019.

Now I ask Claude or ChatGPT (or Gemini) and 5 minutes later I have instructions, or a summary, or a table or whatever I need.

If you’re not using the photo feature yet then try this: next time the smart tv stops being so smart or the washing machine throws up an error message, just flick open ChatGPT, take a photo and say ‘tell me what to do’. Boom.

It’s like Google Maps for figuring stuff out.

5. Reading Your Stats Back to You

This one, done well is a bit of a goldmine. (But can also be a time suck so use wisely).

Most of us collect data but never really interpret it. Open rates, click-throughs, post views, sales numbers, subscriber growth. We glance, we feel briefly good or briefly anxious, and we move on.

AI is excellent at the interpret layer. Paste in your last month of post stats (or sales data, or engagement metrics) and ask it to find the patterns.

• Which posts or notes performed best?

• What do the top three have in common?

• Where’s the gap between people opening and people actually reading?

I did this with my Substack stats recently and Claude spotted that posts with personal anecdotes in the first 50 words consistently outperformed the ones that started with a broader observation. Hence most of my posts now start with a personal anecdote.

How Are You Using AI?

So they’re the main ways I’m using AI on a daily basis. I’m sure I use it in plenty of other ways too, but those are the ones that come to mind right now.

If you’re using AI in ways I haven’t mentioned, let me know in the comments. I’m always curious what’s working for other people.

Right. I’m off to do some more tasks Claude wouldn’t let me put off this morning, before heading for a pool afternoon with my daughter!

Have a great Monday.

📍 Vegas, baby! 🎰