I’ve been approached a lot lately with questions about how AI will impact workday productivity.
One of the more specific questions I’m asked is if AI will change the way I teach Taskology® and the quick answer to that question is undoubtedly a “no.”
Why? Well, because AI won’t replace your ability to think and make decisions, plan and prioritize, or deal with changes in priorities, the unexpected, or nuances.
It’s easy to get sucked in by the thought of AI taking something—or a LOT of things—OFF your plate, because promises of tools, rules, and AI make you think that you don’t have to THINK! 😯
But unfortunately, this is not the case. You DO still need to know how to think through what you need to do and how you’ll go about doing it.
Same goes for email. AI for email is like using Rules, and neither one is going to solve the challenges of email. They actually can CAUSE more issues than solve them—and those are issues that can cost you.
A good example of this is when I work with clients who have been using Rules to send emails into folders before they see them and then later, suddenly realize that opportunities, tasks, and follow ups have flown right by them, because they had no way of knowing or remembering to LOOK in those folders. OOPS. 🤦♀️ (For more about AI and email, check out this article I wrote.)
Look, I’m sure there are a number of ways that AI can help with certain aspects of your workday. What they are, I don’t know. I’m sure YOU could tell ME.
But here’s what I DO know when it comes to the management of tasks, time, email, and information in your workday.
You need to stay in charge.
Can AI help with workday productivity and save you time? Maybe.
But SHOULD it? That’s the better question to ask.
Here are just a few simple examples of what I’ve seen on the web about what AI is supposed to be able to do, plus my thoughts on each one.
1. AI is being offered as a project or task management option for teams whereby it can assign tasks to team members based on team member skills, workload, priorities, and more. But keep in mind, ALL of those bits of data MUST be in a system already OR they must be added so AI can do its job. AI relies SOLELY on how complete, comprehensive, and accurate the data is. Great data can give you great outcomes. But inaccurate or incomplete data will most assuredly give you crappy outcomes.
2. AI suggests it can handle “routine project management tasks efficiently and effectively,” but when is task or a project EVER “routine?” When you’re in an executive or managerial position, or you own a business, most of your tasks are NOT “routine.” Plus, not every project or task will unfold EXACTLY as you expected it to and this is where AI isn’t going to understand the nuances.
3. AI can brainstorm the many tasks you may have to do as part of a project, sure, but unless everything else you need to do is in the SAME system, it won’t help you prioritize what it’s given you with all of the other tasks on your plate. Again, poor or incomplete data = poor or incomplete outcomes.
4. AI can try to help with scheduling, too, but if your calendar is like those of my clients BEFORE we start working together, your calendar may be incomplete or in some ways inaccurate. It may be missing appointments, but AI won’t know that, so it won’t know how much time you really have or don’t have. And when it comes to teams, what if each team members’ time zone isn’t included? Then, AI may schedule meetings when some team members aren’t available. Plus, AI will never be able to make the best decisions for you about how YOU should spend your time.
5. AI suggests it can try to help with scheduling of tasks, which means tasks are managed on a calendar in those apps, which is a VERY inefficient and unreliable way to manage tasks. If you want to read more about why this is true, you can check out this article I wrote about why tasks don’t belong on a calendar.
Here’s the bottom line for now…
Your progress is driven by task management and how well you execute.
Even email management is really task management in disguise. (It’s information management in disguise, too, but that’s another topic for another day.)
When you look to AI for help with managing tasks, here’s what some websites say—and what I have to say, too.
In general, AI apps say they can…
…give you helpful suggestions for how to finish a task if you get stuck.
…generate all of the possible tasks that will help you finish a project or reach a goal.
…help you break down a larger task into smaller, more manageable steps.
For the first one, stay tuned. I address what you need to know in the paragraphs below. For the other two, what if AI spits out a long list of tasks, but then THAT list overwhelms you? And what if it misses steps or steers you in the wrong direction? What then?
So many things can go wrong if you’re not vigilant or if you’re new to a process that you really need to know and manage carefully.
The maximum benefit you’ll get from AI in these cases is at best average.
So, if what AI misses the mark or doesn’t live up to your standards or the standards of others, you’ve wasted your time.
Your time is actually best spent thinking through your plan of action on your own or perhaps with other teammates.
But if you’re not able to think through your own tasks and take responsibility for how they unfold, then it’s time to learn. It’s a skill you ABSOLUTELY need to have in your tool box, because…
…ONLY YOU are in charge of how a task or project will proceed when you’re the owner
…ONLY YOU can change the direction of action on a task or project when the unexpected happens
…ONLY YOU can determine WHO needs to be involved at different stages
…ONLY YOU know how to make your work stand out to be the BEST so you RISE ABOVE the culture of the average
…ONLY YOU can make decisions about how to handle a specific situation or step, given what you know about your particular job, business, or industry.
I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
In short, AI accesses everything that is ALREADY out there so if you want to be better—or the BEST—at what you do, don’t settle for anything less. Stay in charge of your tasks, projects, emails, information, and work in general. ALWAYS.
The key is to be most EFFICIENT with handling your work so you can spend more of your time doing what you do best—NOT on the cumbersome management of the emails, information or the tasks themselves. You want to make that a FAST and EASY process so you can get to the good stuff!
And when you can spend MOST of your time doing what you do best…
…when you’re able to put your ALL into your work to create OUTSTANDING results and outcomes
…when you can make the smartest decisions because of the things only YOU know…
Then you’ll OUTSHINE everyone else.
