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- 🧠 Letting AI Handle the Little Stuff: Automating Daily Tasks That Drain You
🧠 Letting AI Handle the Little Stuff: Automating Daily Tasks That Drain You
Discover how AI can automate the small tasks that drain your energy. From transcribing meetings to drafting emails, learn how tools like Tactiq and Notion AI can help boost your productivity and free up mental space.
Ever feel like your brain is being nibbled away by a thousand tiny tasks? Me too. After last week’s edition on how I use AI to organize my brain, a lot of you messaged me saying, “This is great for big-picture thinking — but what about the small stuff?”
Let’s go there.
Because real relief isn’t always about reinventing your workflow. Sometimes it’s just about stopping the daily drain — those five-minute tasks that pile up and pull you out of your flow. Here’s how I’m using AI to take care of those for me, and how you can too.
🎯 Why This Matters
Small tasks are sneaky. They look innocent — a meeting recap here, a quick reply there — but they add up.
The average knowledge worker loses 2–3 hours per day to “microtasks” like email replies, note-taking, and context-switching.
Multitasking can reduce productivity by up to 40%.
The cost of mental fatigue? Creativity, focus, and decision-making all take a hit.
AI is finally at a point where it can take these off our plate — reliably, affordably, and without much setup.
🛠️ Tools That Help (And I Actually Use)
Here's a quick breakdown of two tools I’ve been relying on to offload these small-but-draining tasks:
Task | Tool | What It Does Well | Why I Like It |
|---|---|---|---|
Transcribing meetings & summarizing key points | Tactiq | Captures Zoom, Google Meet, MS Teams calls in real time, highlights key action items, and exports summaries | Saves hours of post-call note-taking and lets me stay focused in meetings |
Writing follow-ups, brainstorming, and organizing to-dos | Notion AI | Turns bullet points into polished content, summarizes long notes, generates next steps | It's built into my Notion docs so I can stay in one workspace |
🧪 Real-Life Use Cases
📞 1. After a client call:
Before: I'd sit there frantically scribbling during the Zoom call, then spend 30 minutes cleaning it up afterward.
Now: I let Tactiq run in the background, highlight important bits as the meeting unfolds, and by the time we’re done, I already have a clean summary, action items, and even a follow-up draft ready.
📥 2. Inbox triage:
Using Notion AI, I’ll paste in long email chains, and ask it:
“Summarize this conversation and give me 3 action items.”
Within seconds, it gives me the overview and helps me respond with clarity.
🗂️ 3. Turning scattered thoughts into a plan:
Instead of staring at a blank page, I’ll drop a few messy thoughts into Notion and say:
“Organize this into a clear outline for a newsletter.”
It’s like having a patient editor in my pocket.
🚀 How to Start Small (And Win Big)
Start with one recurring task that bugs you. Something like:
Post-meeting recaps
Writing polite “just checking in” emails
Brain-dumping and organizing ideas
Then choose your weapon — Notion AI, Tactiq, or even ChatGPT if that’s your jam — and test it on just one thing.
It doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to free up your brain a little.
You can scale this too. Once you get used to AI handling one task, move on to others. Maybe it's scheduling meetings, automating report generation, or even drafting content for your social channels. The more AI takes off your plate, the more mental energy you have for the creative, strategic stuff.
🔁 Bonus Prompt to Try
Drop this into your favorite AI tool after a meeting:
“Here’s a transcript from our call. Please summarize the key discussion points in bullet form, list any next steps, and draft a short follow-up email I can send to the client.”
Tweak as needed — but this alone can shave off 20 minutes of work.
🧩 Final Thought
You don’t need to be an automation wizard to start using AI in your day. You just need to notice what’s draining you — and decide it’s not worth the brainpower anymore.
Small wins stack.
Let AI handle the little stuff — and make more room for the big stuff only you can do.
📬 Forward this to someone who could use help with this
👥 Or share it on LinkedIn with a quick line about which tool you’ll try
🔗 Want more AI productivity hacks? 👉 fundamentallyai.beehiiv.com/subscribe to get weekly insights on AI-powered efficiency, smart automation, and real-world use cases that actually work.
📢 Found this helpful? Share with a friend who could use an AI boost in their daily routine!