Hi Reader,

This month's idea comes from an Arthur Brooks talk I heard. One line stuck with me: never make the mistake of meeting a complex need with a complicated tool.

In AI terms: it's very easy to start using a powerful tool to solve problems that aren't actually tool problems.

What I'm Noticing

When things feel uncertain (a hard decision, messy collaboration, fear of getting it wrong), we tend to reach for AI the same way people reach for their phone: as a way to calm the discomfort.

Sometimes that's genuinely useful. AI can reduce friction, surface options, summarize complexity, and save time on annoying tasks.

But sometimes it becomes a kind of emotional outsourcing: using a powerful tool to avoid the human work of deciding, communicating, or sitting in ambiguity for a minute.

I've caught myself doing this. Reaching for AI when I'm not actually stuck on the work. I'm stuck on the feeling of it. Not "what's the next step?" but "I don't want to make the wrong call." That's not an automation problem. That's a decision-making problem.

AI is excellent for time sinks: turning raw notes into clean artifacts, drafting, summarizing, organizing, documenting. It's much less helpful for complex human needs: reassurance, self-trust, conflict, accountability, and identity-level uncertainty.

The risk isn't overusing AI. It's using automation to bypass the human step the workflow actually requires.

Your Next Move

From "use AI everywhere" to "use AI where it removes friction, and build a human practice for the rest."

The next time you reach for AI, try a 30-second Route Check first.

Step 1: Name the need. Ask: what is this, really?

• Time sink work (drafting, summarizing, formatting, organizing, documenting)
• Decision work (tradeoffs, prioritization, commitment)
• Communication work (clarity, tone, alignment)
• Human work (conflict, anxiety, avoidance, accountability)

Step 2: Route it.

• Time sink work: Automate it
• Decision work: Clarify, then decide (human-owned)
• Communication work: Draft with AI, deliver as a human
• Human work: Take it offline (conversation, pause, walk, journal, coach, teammate)

Step 3: Pick one tiny practice this week.

• The Friction List: Write your top 5 weekly time sinks (the repeat offenders). Pick one to systematize this week with a template, checklist, or repeatable workflow.
• The Decision Memo: Before asking AI to "figure it out," write 6 bullets: the decision, what matters most, what you're optimizing for, what you're willing to trade off, who decides, by when. Then use AI to stress-test options.
• The Conversation Trigger: If you've generated five versions of a message, it's probably not a writing problem. It's a conversation you're avoiding. After draft #2, stop and ask: who do I need to talk to?

Do this next week: The next time you open your favorite AI to start prompting, pause for 30 seconds and run the Route Check. Is this a time sink, a decision, a communication task, or a human moment? Then route it accordingly.

Life Beyond the Screen

This week, I caught myself doing the thing where I try to solve a feeling with a solution. Not a work problem. A human moment.

I was spiraling on a decision and about to open a new chat to "think it through." Instead, I grabbed my journal and wrote for ten minutes. No prompt, no structure. Just getting it out of my head and onto the page.

By the end I had my answer. Not because the writing was brilliant, but because the act of slowing down long enough to think was the thing I actually needed.

Arthur Brooks' line keeps coming back to me here: don't try to meet a complex need with a complicated tool. Sometimes the right tool is a pencil and ten quiet minutes.

What's your most reliable offline reset?

Listen to the Automate Yourself podcast:​
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts​
📺 Watch on YouTube​

Find me online:

​​​​

Let's Chillaborate,
​Dina​
Founder, Chill Labs

PS: Want the Route Check as a printable PDF? Reply "Route Check" and I'll send it over. 😊