personal productivity & ai

You were hired. Not AI.

It's a genuinely useful tool, but only once you know what to actually ask it for. Here's what that looks like for a working manager.

Start Here · An 8-Step Path

New to this? There's an order to it now.

What AI actually does, how to brief it, your first assistant, your first agent, and where to go once you've outgrown one. Eight steps, start to finish.

Start at Step 1 →
STEP 1Read →
Stop and Learn AI: Your First 15 Minutes
You don't need to be an expert, you need to open a tool and give it one real problem.
STEP 2Read →
How to Think About AI
Talk to it instead of copy-pasting into it, and keep your own mind in the loop.
STEP 3Read →
Stop Searching. Start Giving AI the Whole Problem.
The email thread, the messy notes, the competing opinions. Hand over the actual mess and let it help you think.
STEP 4Read →
Using AI as a Thinking Partner
Three real conversations, a job offer, a stalled project, a priority mess, and what actually got unstuck.
STEP 5Read →
Build Your First AI Assistant
A 10 to 15 minute build: a Daily Check-In assistant and a Customer Question Triage assistant, with copyable prompts.
STEP 6Read →
Using Projects and Agents for Repeat Work
Status updates, customer emails, and report reviews: set it up once, stop rebuilding the prompt every time.
STEP 7Read →
AI Agents, and How to Build Your First One
A Project waits for you. An agent doesn't. The five parts every agent has, and a walkthrough for building one.
GO FURTHERRead →
Connecting Multiple AI Agents Together
The handoff pattern: one agent produces, a second one checks or extends, using Customer Q Triage as the worked example.
ADVANCEDRead →
Your First Agent, One Example All the Way Through
An email triage agent, taught step by step: workflow vs. agent, the system prompt, the code, and where it runs.
STEP 8Read →
AI Isn't the Problem. What You Do With the Time Back Is.
A 3-part framework for where saved time should actually go, plus two scripts for your next 1:1.
FRAMEWORKRead →
Stop Thinking of AI as a Chatbot. Start Thinking of AI as a Team.
Chat, Project, Skill, and Agent aren't four products, they're four ways to work with AI. Walk one example through all three, then try it on your own job.
manager's prompt cheat sheet

The four prompts worth keeping handy.

Print it, pin it, use it. The full breakdown, with before-and-after examples, is in How to Think About AI.

Idea generation "What are five creative ways to [goal] for a team dealing with [challenge]?"
Coaching "Rate my prompt 1 to 10 and suggest how to make it more specific."
Difficult conversations "Write me an opening line that's direct but not harsh."
Meeting prep "Give me three questions that'll get past status updates."