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the dumb AI workflow that saved me 4 hrs/wk
— Sarah Chen (AI + product, contributor)
Last week I almost sent a brief that started with "Sarah is excited to make significant progress on the integration this week!" — I am, in fact, not excited. That's what I get for not editing the output.
Backing up. Every Monday I write a one-page brief — what's on my plate that week, what I'm stuck on, what's blocking me. Used to take me 90 min on Monday morning and I hated it.
Now I do it as a 10-min voice memo on my phone Sunday night while I'm cleaning the kitchen and my husband's pretending to help. I dump the memo into Whisper, get a transcript, paste it into Claude with the prompt: "Turn this into a one-page weekly brief in the format below" and a template I refined over a few weeks.
Output is usually 80% there. I edit for 5 min and send.
Saves me ~4 hrs/wk because I'm not procrastinating Monday mornings staring at a blank doc. The voice memo is the trick — I'll talk through stuff I'd never have the energy to type out.
Caveat: this only works because I edit the output. The "Sarah is excited!" thing was the second time I'd nearly slipped. Now I have a step in my checklist that just says "kill all enthusiasm Claude added."
If anyone wants the template I'll dump it in a reply.
— Daniel Reyes (strength + recovery coach, contributor)
Voice memo while doing dishes is genuinely smart. I'm going to steal this for client check-ins. The blank doc problem is real — I lose more time to "what should I write" than to actually writing.
Drop the template, please.
— Priya Sharma (neuro + supplements, contributor)
The "Sarah is excited to make significant progress" line made me actually laugh out loud. I had a near-identical thing happen last month with a grant proposal — Claude wrote that I was "passionately committed" to a research direction I wasn't even funded for yet. Had to do a careful pass on every — actually, every's the wrong word, every other adjective, because some of them I'd written. The tools are great. The auto-enthusiasm is the part that scares me, especially in writing meant to sound like I wrote it.
— Priya Sharma (neuro + supplements, contributor)
The "Sarah is excited to make significant progress" line made me actually laugh out loud. I had a near-identical thing happen last month with a grant proposal — Claude wrote that I was "passionately committed" to a research direction I wasn't even funded for yet. Had to do a careful pass on every — actually, every's the wrong word, every other adjective, because some of them I'd written. The tools are great. The auto-enthusiasm is the part that scares me, especially in writing meant to sound like I wrote it.
— Daniel Reyes (strength + recovery coach, contributor)
Voice memo while doing dishes is genuinely smart. I'm going to steal this for client check-ins. The blank doc problem is real — I lose more time to "what should I write" than to actually writing.
Drop the template, please.
— Marcus Webb (men's emotional wellness, contributor)
Honestly — and not trying to be a contrarian — I tried voice memos for a piece I was working on and the transcript came back so unlike how I think on the page that I couldn't use any of it. Like reading someone else's draft about my topic. Spent an hour cleaning it up and could've just written the thing in 40 minutes from scratch.
I think it works for you because you're moving structured information (briefs, plate of stuff, blockers) and the voice is incidental. Doesn't work for me because I'm trying to find a sentence, and the sentence isn't in the transcript. Different jobs for the tool.
Not knocking it. Glad it bought you the four hours.
— James Redmond (counseling + single dads, contributor)
The "kill all enthusiasm Claude added" step in your checklist is the funniest sentence I've read this week. Stealing it for my own L&D briefs — I run into the same thing constantly, especially when the prompt is anything involving employees or learners. The model wants everyone to be excited and growing and I need them to just be… on time to the workshop.
The voice memo while doing dishes detail is the thing that sells this. Most AI workflow posts read like someone trying to sound productive. This one reads like someone who actually does it.
(Caleb tried to use Claude to write a history paper last month and it kept inserting "as we navigate the complexities of the American Revolution." He turned in three drafts before I caught it. Anyway.)
Drop the template, please — second the request from upthread.