Throughout my entire career, I assumed “real work” requires two things: a desk and a keyboard. I considered uninterrupted blocks on a calendar and curated spaces to be prerequisites for deep work.
I spent years setting up my home office to protect those golden hours of sustained focus. I built my career on thoughtful writing and strategy development, so productivity manifested as hours typing in front of a screen.
A few months ago, I found myself in a familiar situation as a working parent: I was stuck under a 48-pound sleeping child who was battling strep throat. I had time-sensitive emails to send and an ever-growing to-do list. As I sat immobilized, staring at my laptop across the room, I felt my anxiety rising.
I decided I needed to try something different, and that decision changed everything.
I turned on my Bee, a personal AI wearable device that helps me with tasks and organization. I dictated a stream-of-consciousness list: emails to write, Slack messages to follow up, and ideas I didn’t want to forget.
I copied the transcript from my Bee app into ChatGPT and prompted it to sort everything—grouping tasks, drafting communications, and delivering phone-friendly responses I could copy and paste with one thumb while still holding my sleeping daughter.
In less than an hour, I’d cleared my to-do list, set up my day, and created space for focused, strategic thinking, all without sitting at a desk or typing a single word.
This experience unlocked two key lessons:
1. AI doesn’t replace work; it accelerates the speed at which you can get to deep work.
I’ve been conditioned to sit at a desk and type on a keyboard as my primary approach to productivity. This method results in work product limited by the speed of my typing and further constrained by the delete button, which inhibits my state of flow due to over-editing and self-interruption.
The truth is that I’m a verbal processor. Talking to my Bee device on the go and to my computer via WhisprFlow, a voice transcription app on my desktop, has dramatically increased my ability to get into and stay in deep work. I can quickly knock out tasks while commuting from day care or on a midday walk. At my desk, I can stay in deep work mode longer by leveraging my stream of consciousness to flesh out more ideas, enabling me to access the really good ones in record time.
“I can quickly knock out tasks while commuting from day care or on a midday walk.”
2. It’s not about technology for the sake of technology. It’s about aligning technology with real human needs.
The vast number of AI tools and the discussions surrounding prompt engineering (crafting clear, specific instructions to get best results from AI tools) can be overwhelming. However, you don’t need technical skills or a background in prompt engineering to use AI effectively; what you need is clarity and repetition. The more you engage with your tools using natural speech, the better the tools support your unique thought process and the better you become at picking the right tool for the right problem.
I’ve narrowed down my primary tech stack to the following tools (as of June 2025):
- Granola: AI notetaker that turns my Zoom calls into instant summaries and action items.
- Reclaim.ai: Calendar intelligence that protects focus time, adds buffers between events, and integrates habit tracking.
- WhisprFlow: Desktop-based voice-to-text transcription that captures my thoughts while editing for clarity and grammar.
- Bee: A wearable voice recorder and task assistant that lets me brainstorm while parenting, commuting, or walking.
- Claude: My go-to assistant, known for its strong reasoning, careful approach to sensitive topics, and ability to handle complex tasks with detailed outputs and nuanced analysis.
- ChatGPT: My second assistant for quick prototyping, email drafting, rapid research, and effective voice chat.
The old paradigm suggests that deep work requires a desk, a keyboard, and the perfect conditions. But some of my clearest thinking now happens in motion and out loud. AI didn’t replace my focus; it helped me access it wherever I am.
You don’t need to be an engineer to use AI. You don’t need to be at a desk to be productive.
You just need to speak up and let your tools do the listening.
