The Secret To Reclaiming Your Time With Two Simple Ideas
AI is Reshaping The World With Or Without You Take Advantage Of It
Time Investment
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Reading Time: 5 min
The Story of Mike
I felt surprised the other day. Actually, I felt shocked. When you have been doing something for a long time you get to a point where you think you’ve learned all there is to learn. Not true.
I spoke to a former client of mine the other day. His name is Mike. Actually he was the employee of my client who was in charge of working with me to implement a workflow automation system built around their point of sales system and quickbooks. He is an accountant and bookkeeper by trade, in his mid 50s.
While we worked together he saw first hand how quickly you can automate workflows, business processes and build systems around the employees favorite ways to work. I mean, he basically learned by proxy right? Nope, wrong.
When we spoke the other day he told me about how his marriage is going, the life changes he has and updated me on what’s been happening with him. And then he mentioned to me that his new job is just so stressful. There are so many tedious tasks he constantly has to do and that he’s feeling burned out.
It blew my mind. He worked with me in automating an entire system and there he was not realizing that he can just do the exact same thing for himself in a few hours. It would solve his frustrations and free up his time.
Most People & Businesses Owners Are Simply Not Aware That This Is Possible
They are the frogs in the pot of water and they are not realizing that the water is heating up. They are not aware that the world is shifting underneath their feet.
I read a fantastic article which described a survey done for larger businesses who are adopting AI and serious automations into their processes. I am going to give you the secret to how you can reclaim your time and harness the power of workflow automation and AI.’
"When it comes to AI agents, technology isn’t the barrier, mindsets are."
~pwc.com
This is the first thing you need to realize. When you read about the progress AI is making you read things like:
Solved a 50 year old math problem
Helped synthesize proteins for pharmaceuticals
Developed augmented vision features to help vision impaired people see
Developed novel diagnostic tools for cancer
And you wonder: well how on earth does this relate to me? This doesn’t affect my accounting firm or my law firm. But oh yes it does.
You see AI is already past the ability to change small businesses. It can already do that. That is not what is interesting to the big companies. Changing small businesses is not what AI is made for, it is a side effect.
The technology to radically change your business and your day to day work is already there. You are just not seeing it.
New Companies In All Industries Will Be Built On AI
Andrew Wilkinson recently gave an interview in which he said something so incredible it’s hard to wrap your head around. When he merged three companies he was quoted $75,000 to $100,000 for the legal fees.
As a test he used Deep Research AI to draft the documents, then went to the same law firms, told them this was made by another law firm and instructed them to review the documents and make sure there are no glaring issues.
The final bill was $2,000.
If this does not shake you awake, I am not sure what will.
Idea #1:
You need to understand that it is no longer business as usual, that the technology is already there and that it is ready for you to use it. All you have to do is sign up.
"With the potential for disruption growing, playing it safe isn’t a strategy. To lead with AI, you need to move with intention."
~pwc.com
Remember, you are the Frog. If you wait in the water, you may die. You need to understand that there is no more time to lose. You need to act and begin implementing AI. Here is an example everyone will understand:
Remember Borders Bookstore when the internet came out? What did they not do? Where are they now?
If you do not use AI you are Borders. Companies using AI are Amazon.
They are adopting, learning and they are going to crush it. Just from a unit economics perspective they are going to win the game.
Businesses, employees and workers as well as freelancers need to move with intention and adopt AI. You need to learn it and be comfortable with it. It’s a skill, like any other you had to learn for any job or any business. It is not magic.
Idea #2:
You need to accept that you have to learn a new skill. Go through the initial resistance, put in one hour a day and begin implementing AI into your business.
What happened to Mike?
At the end of our conversation I told Mike: “Hey why don’t you just use Zapier and automate these tasks like we did when we worked together?” He said: “I don’t know, I just got caught up in the daily grind you know?”
Learning the technology is not hard. Mike knew it, that is the easy part. It is becoming aware of how much it can do for you. That is the difficult part.
Here are some super simple action steps you should implement into your daily routine:
Look at every task, each tedious repetitive thing you or your employees do daily, as an opportunity to automate and reclaim time. Don’t think about whether you can automate it. Just look at everything. You’d be surprised.
Write it down! I cannot overstate the importance of writing it down. Otherwise you get caught up in the daily grind. The psychology of writing it down makes it real for you. You become aware (Idea 1).
Think of AI as an assistant, an employee. It is quite similar. You can give it tasks to do, jobs to complete, it will learn how to get better.
AI is meant to enhance, not replace. I have many examples of automations I have built for clients where the savings were used to make employees happier in their job.Remember AI will not replace most things directly. People who use AI will.
Set aside time each day to learn https://zapier.com. There are other tools, but it is super easy. It is the perfect gateway to begin learning how to use automation and AI. If you want to go a bit more advanced learn https://lindy.ai (Idea #2).
Taking the first step is the hardest part. But I know you can do it.
So long, until next week.
References
https://www.pwc.com/us/en/tech-effect/ai-analytics/ai-agent-survey.html