Design a Workday That Actually Works (In the Age of AI)

The future doesn't reward availability. It rewards value.

AI is shifting the center of gravity from who can respond the fastest to who can think the deepest.
But deep work doesn’t happen in the glow of notifications or during back-to-back status calls.

If we want to stay relevant in an AI-shaped world, we have to start acting like our time is expensive—because it is.

The Hidden Cost of Distraction

Every ping you answer mid-thought?
Every “quick” reply that turns into a Slack spiral?

That’s rented time.
Not from your calendar—but from your future self. The one who was supposed to think clearly, write well, and move the business forward.

We're mistaking responsiveness for usefulness. And AI? It’s not fooled.

I had to learn this the hard way. Early in my career, I prided myself on always being reachable. Now? I block 90-minute deep work windows daily—no Slack, no email, no tabs. That’s where real value and leverage are built.

Design for Depth, Not Visibility

AI will accelerate shallow work. That’s its job.
Which means your job is to focus where AI can’t:

• Strategic synthesis
• Original thinking
• Emotional intelligence
• Taste

But those don’t emerge in chaotic work environments. They come from structure. From intention. From time you protect—not hope for.

For me, that looks like:

• Using AI to collapse new topics into bullet-point summaries
• Prompting models to run Socratic-style learning sprints (“Teach me X in 14 days, 30 mins/day”)
• Audibly logging my tasks in a weekly rhythm doc, then tagging distractions I gave into
• And yes—scheduling learning like meetings so it actually happens!

These tools don’t replace my thinking. They clear the runway so I can get to it faster.

My Co-Writer Has 200 Billion Parameters

I don’t write these posts alone. I draft them in conversation—with an AI that acts like a creative partner, editor, sparring mate, and occasionally, a challenger of my own blind spots. It does that last one really well, because I taught it to.

We go back and forth:
I drop raw thoughts, it offers a shape.
I push back, it sharpens.
Together, we build something faster than I could solo—and cleaner than I’d get with 43 browser tabs open.

This is what working with AI looks like:
Not replacing thought. Accelerating it.

The Upfront Contract: Turning Focus Into a Shared Agreement with your Team

Here’s something most people miss when trying to protect their time: you don’t need to just block it—you need to contract for it.

Before you restructure your calendar or disappear into “focus mode,” build an upfront contract with your manager. Literally—a short, visual document where you agree on:

• What deep work time you’re protecting
• What outputs will result from that protection
• How communication will work during that time
• What tradeoffs or exceptions you’re offering

It turns ambiguity into alignment. I’ve done this multiple times—“Here’s my 90-minute block, here’s what I’ll produce by Friday, and here’s the 30-minute window I’m still reserving for team flow.”

Instead of negotiating every day, you negotiate once—on paper. And you build trust by delivering exactly what you committed to.

Build External Systems That Guard Your Attention

You don’t just protect your time with your calendar. You protect it with your architecture.

I’ve built out shared, living documentation for nearly every major project I run—decision logs, outcome summaries, current status, future risks. Everything someone would normally ping me to ask is already answered there.

And the key? AI builds it with me.
I feed it notes, updates, and raw thinking—then prompt it to:

• Summarize the key takeaways
• Create decision trees
• Format timelines
• Generate clean handoff docs

This offloads a ton of repeated explanation and frees me to stay focused on the high-leverage work.

More recently, I’ve been training internal AI models on that documentation—basically giving my team a private AI assistant that knows how I think, what’s been decided, and where everything lives.
Now when I’m heads down—or out entirely—they don’t just check a doc. They ask the model.

It’s a self-service layer for knowledge. And it works because I made the machine fluent in my own operating system.

AI isn’t just a thought partner. It’s my archivist, my documentation engine, and sometimes—my ghostwriter for clarity. And when you've documented all your work projects, start a blog to share your other ideas 😁

How to Negotiate Your Focus With Your Manager

Want more deep work time? Here’s how to ask for it in a way that builds trust—not resentment:

1. Frame it as a business asset
   “I’ve been tracking where I’m most valuable—and it’s never while half-answering DMs. I’d like to pilot 90 minutes of distraction-free time each morning to push key projects forward.”

2. Share the scoreboard
   “Here’s what I’ll deliver by the end of the week if I protect that time. Let’s measure output, not just visibility.”

3. Make the trade explicit
   “I’ll block this time daily, but I’ll leave a 30-minute buffer for urgent team questions. I’m not disappearing—I’m shifting toward higher-leverage work.”

If you want buy-in, show your data. I used to screenshot my daily context-switching logs—how many times I broke flow, how long it took to recover. It stopped being a request. It became a risk mitigation plan.

AI Rewards Rhythm Over Reactivity

The people who thrive won’t be the most connected.
They’ll be the ones who can:

• Sustain attention
• Build external thinking systems
• Make better decisions, faster

It’s not about hustling harder. It’s about building the mental and digital scaffolding for high-return thinking.

And here’s the kicker: The better your focus, the more useful AI becomes.

Ask it better questions. Use it to simulate conversations before they happen.
Create a loop where your insights fuel the machine—and the machine returns clarity, not chaos.

This Isn’t Just Productivity. It’s Positioning.

Your future career won't be built on how many tabs you kept open—it'll be built on what you made when you finally closed them.

So shut the door.
Build the system.
Guard the hours like your life depends on it—because your future one does.

Don’t wait for permission.
Design your day like your time is too valuable to waste.

Because it is.