For years, we’ve been indoctrinated with simple formulas for achieving more during the day…

• Write prioritized to-do lists
• Manage your days based on strategies
• Use a technique that could be considered time-blocking

As well as a handful of more sophisticated techniques, such as the one devised by Dwight David Eisenhower; then tweaked and popularized by Stephen Covey.

 

Now, artificial intelligence (AI for short – in case you’ve been living under a rock) has burst on the scene with aspirations of affecting the way we spend our time in almost all aspects of life.

Some people have been quick to adopt AI in their daily lives; others less so – but it seems inevitable that even those who are laggards will soon be dragged into using AI, perhaps even against their will.

What, though, does AI mean to those traditional techniques and the tools that help people use them?  Do they just go away and never be used again?  Do we sit the devices collecting dust in the corner of the room while we chat with Claude?

Although that may also seem inevitable at times, the reality is that humans need structure, and the types of tools that have been used traditionally are the types that provide that structure, while AI does not.  In many ways, it takes that structure away.

So don’t worry about your favorite tools and techniques vanishing.  Your challenge into the future is learning how to leverage in a world where you can ask questions and get seasoned answers – a world in which the Internet of 2024 will seem as antique as a wall phone with a dial from 1960.

Depending on AI to be your brains – whether it’s writing your book for you, or planning your time – is likely to have its drawbacks that you won’t always notice until you don’t get enough done; or until you don’t get enough of the most important stuff done.

In upcoming posts, I’ll help you meet that challenge – give you strategies and tactics to use the best of the traditional in a way that will help you incorporate the latest into your days better,.

It might be a rough ride for some; but we’ll make it easier.

In the meantime, take a look at a Medium article I wrote months ago, so people who use Eisenhower’s Matrix (the technique I mentioned earlier in this article) could visualize how AI impacts their favorite technique.  It’s just one way of looking at the issue – and seeing the opportunities of the powerful combination of old and new for time management.

 

David Radin is multi-book author, and creator of “Time Management in the Age of AI” workshops.  He also acts as CEO of Confirmed, where he helps mobile professionals each and every day become more successful by making their tools and processes easier, faster, and more effective.

Although David is comfortable using AI, he didn’t use it to craft this article.