You can't say where your week goes

You know you're flat out every week, but you probably couldn't tell me where the hours actually go.

That matters more than it sounds, because it's exactly what you're guessing at every time you decide which job to hand to AI. Pick from memory and you'll automate the job that annoys you most, which is rarely the job that costs you most.

Most of us guess badly. Researchers who compare people's own estimates of their working week with hour-by-hour time diaries keep finding a gap, and it's widest for the people who report the longest weeks. The busier you are, the less you can trust your memory of the week.

So stop guessing, and keep a log for five days.

Every time you switch jobs, say one line into the notes app on your phone: what you just did and roughly how long it took. "Quotes for two new enquiries, 40 minutes." "Chasing an unpaid invoice, 15 minutes." It takes seconds, and by Wednesday you'll barely notice you're doing it.

On Friday, paste the lot into Claude or ChatGPT. Ask it to group everything into types of work and add up the hours for each. Then ask which three types took the most time and kept coming back.

That's your AI shortlist. It may look nothing like the list you'd have written from memory, because it's built on what you actually did all week.

Five days of notes, and you'll know where your hours go and which of them AI should have.