Like many of you, I've been watching the rapid rise of AI with a mix of curiosity and concern. The environmental costs are real—those massive data centers consume enormous amounts of water and electricity. And let's be honest: I don't trust the tech oligarchy to prioritize making work easier for the working class over simply replacing jobs altogether. There are significant unknowns that deserve our attention and skepticism.
But here's where my personal experience intersects with professional reality: despite these valid concerns, I've chosen to embrace AI as a tool in my consulting work, and the primary reason has been self-care.
When Your Body Calls the Shots
Some of you know I spent ten months dealing with a frozen shoulder—ten months of significant pain, sleepless nights, physical therapy appointments, and daily exercises just to regain basic mobility. While I've recovered much of my range of motion, the muscles around my shoulders still tighten up quickly and painfully. And guess what makes it worse? Hours hunched over a keyboard typing client notes, meeting agendas, and action plans. That's where AI became not just helpful, but necessary to maintain my productivity. This physical need led me to discover a process that's transformed how I work.
How It Actually Works
I pay $20 a month for Claude Pro, and it's honestly one of the best business expenses I've made. Let me show you exactly how this works—because I'm using this process to write this very newsletter.
Here's what I did for this article:
Spent a few minutes thinking about what I wanted to say
Jotted down some quick notes about my key points
Talked with Claude for several minutes about what I wanted to write
Asked Claude to help me organize it all in a clear way
Made the final edits, and voilà—a newsletter piece!
The whole process of writing this article took maybe 20 minutes of actual work time, and now I have a well-structured piece that captures my thoughts without hours of typing and editing.
Here’s My Typical Process for Client Work:
After meetings or brainstorming sessions, instead of spending an hour typing detailed notes and action items, I simply talk into my computer's microphone. I tell Claude about the conversation, the key takeaways, and what needs to happen next. Within minutes, I have:
Clear, organized meeting summaries
Concrete action items with priorities
Follow-up agendas for our next session
Sometimes even draft emails or project outlines
What used to take me up to an hour of typing (and shoulder strain) now takes 15 minutes of talking and just a few minutes of typing. My clients get better-organized deliverables—and get more value from our time together—and I stay out of pain.
The Bigger Picture
I'm not suggesting AI is a magic solution to all our work challenges, nor am I ignoring the legitimate concerns about its broader impact. But in my day-to-day reality, this technology has genuinely improved both my work quality and my physical wellbeing.
Self-care isn't just about practices like yoga and meditation—though those matter too. Sometimes it's about finding practical tools that let you do your best work while reducing the impact on your health. For me, AI has become that kind of tool.
As we navigate this rapidly changing landscape, I believe we can hold multiple truths: we can be critical of Big Tech's motives and environmental impact while also finding ways to use these tools that serve our immediate needs and values.
What matters is staying intentional about how and why we use them.
How are you thinking about AI in your own work or organization? I'd love to hear your experiences—both the successes and the concerns.
