Productivity in the Age of AI

In my business, sustainable productivity is about working effectively. Working smarter, not harder, yes… but what does that mean?

What is productivity?

The Holy Grail that somehow no one can define?

Sustainable productivity means that you're able to achieve your goals without giving up everything else you enjoy in life. Your business thrives, and you still have plenty of time to be with your loved ones and engage in your favorite activities. Most days, you have enough hours in the day to achieve business objectives and have some time for yourself. (As a business owner, you know there are always surprises!)

With this definition of productivity, you're working with your brain instead of against it, so your risk of burning out is low. It doesn't require you to get up at 4:30 am when your natural wake-up time is 7 am. It doesn't require you to maintain a 17-step morning routine when you only need three things to start your day. It doesn't require you to learn 200 new keyboard shortcuts so you can shave off a half a second when typing emails.

With sustainable productivity, you get to:

• Determine and act only on your priorities… everything else is delegated or automated
• Work on your business with focus and serenity… not just putting out fires all the time
• Leave early for a child's sportsball game, a spouse's important work event, or the sunset
• Leave work knowing that you achieved your objectives that day
• Ensure you have time for physical movement and nutritious meals…which both feed your brain
• Rebel against American work culture that actually makes work more difficult than it needs to be

Keeping your brain healthy keeps you productive

As a business owner, your most important asset isn't your team (although it's extremely important!) It's not your computer either. It's your brain.

It's similar to your house, which is a big financial asset for many business owners. You take care of it because it is so important. You clean it, or have it cleaned, regularly. If a window breaks, you replace it. When the roof is too old, you replace it. You do maintenance as you go along.

Since your brain is your biggest asset, it needs care and maintenance too. Exercise or physical movement may not be necessary for you to lose or maintain your weight. However, it is absolutely necessary to get your brain the oxygen-rich blood flow that it needs for high performance.

You know your brain needs proper nutrition and hydration, as well as enough sleep. But those aren't the only things that it needs to stay healthy. Some of the more unusual or lesser-known needs your brain has:

• Rest after extended periods of hard "thinky work"
• Activities you enjoy, from crafting to recreational softball playing to musical instrument playing to theater-going to hiking to…
• Time connected to other people… introverts need less of this but we do need some

When your brain receives all these high-quality inputs, you get high-quality performance out of it. Yes, it might seem counter-intuitive, but in order to be productive, you have to leave work and have fun. Trying to just grind through work, hour after hour, is actually less productive than taking 15 minute breaks here and there to refresh and recharge.

So-called "social" media doesn't give you any of this, by the way. Scrolling through "social" or checking email is not rest for your brain. Your brain doesn't register you typing a comment on your friend's reel as connecting with that friend.

In order to satisfy your brain's need for social connection, you need a person's actual voice. This can be done by calling on the phone (NOT texting) or meeting them in person. (It's not clear that Meet and Zoom and the like satisfy the need either, though I think research is ongoing.) I myself have a lot of friends that I have to call because they don't live close to me, but I see the ones I can when I can.

AI won't help as much if you're still working against your brain

Are you familiar with the term order of operations? Maybe like me you first learned about it in math class. But it's true in other realms too: certain things have to be done first, or the whole process or product doesn't work.

If your brain isn't at its performance peak, it doesn't really matter what productivity app you're running, or if you have a parasocial relationship with AI, or whatever else a marketer has told you that you need to be productive.

For that sustainable daily effectiveness, the order of operations starts with your brain being in great shape. You've moved your body, you (hopefully) got enough sleep the night before. Everyone misses some sleep sometimes. But if you're working in a way that prevents you from getting that sleep most nights, you're definitely impeding your productivity and may be opening the door to conditions like dementia in the future.

Brain health as you age is important

You've probably been reading about dementia and Alzheimer's disease and similar conditions as you age. You probably know that doctors recommend plenty of sleep, exercise, time with other people, and to keep using your brain for optimal health as you get older.

Funny how the same things that keep your brain healthy also keep you productive and healthy in old age too! Go figure.

There are a variety of ways to keep using your brain even after you retire, including socialization and learning new things. Dance is a great way to keep your brain healthy because both physical agility and mental agility are tested when you learn new steps. But lifelong learning of any kind will help keep you compos mentis as long as possible.

Now we (as a society) have been using Large Language Models or LLMs, which are a form of AI, for several years. That means there have already been studies done on how LLM use affects the brain.

The results aren't great. Really not great if you prefer that your brain not turn into a mass of goo and slither out your ears when you're 80.

People are already losing brain capability as a result of relying on LLMs. If you use ChatGPT or Claude or another large language model for creating content, you won't be able to recall your own writing. If you use them to do critical thinking for you, you will lose that ability. If you rely on it to edit, say goodbye to your editing capabilities. And so forth.

Which isn't to say that you shouldn't use AI. Though you are under no obligation to use it if you don't want to! But you should probably do all the thinking and analyzing first before you bring AI into your work.

Summary

Keep thinking! It helps your brain stay at optimal performance now and in the future. The more you take care of your brain, by giving it the inputs it needs, the healthier it is and the more productive you'll be. Taking care of your brain can also help delay or prevent the onset of dementia, Alzheimer's, and other neurodegenerative diseases.