Intro

I’ve always been obsessed with being as productive as possible.

Did you know that the average employee is productive for 60% or less each day?

For office workers that statistic drops to a staggeringly low 31%!

This proves to me that productivity is a limited resource. For the rest of this article, I’d like for you to think of it as such.

Learning to accumulate more of it, and spend it wisely is one of the most important skills of modern work.

When you’re productive you give yourself two viable options:

1. Work the same amount, do twice as much.

2. Work half the time, do the same amount.

Now, I’m not here to tell you which of these is the right option for you, I certainly don’t know.

What I have done is put together my own version of the Eisenhower Matrix. (A framework for task management.)

It will help you make decisions about which tasks could and should be handled by AI, in order for you to ‘accumulate’ more productivity.

AI as a Tool For Productivity:

Let’s start with the story of an entirely different tool - I promise it will make sense!

In the 1700s, the textile industry relied on manual spinning wheels.

These tools allowed the user to make cloth, but they were slow, labor-intensive and often downright dangerous.

Then in 1764, James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny. With multiple spindles and capable of being hand cranked, this development sent waves through the textile industry.

It meant that one worker was now able to spin many spools of thread at the same time.

This skyrocketed the efficiency of yarn production, while also lowering the cost of completion.

What point am I trying to get across?

Sometimes new tools come along and change the game!

You can stick to the old manual spinning wheels or learn how to use the new more efficient tool.

AI in many ways is the biggest example of a tool that not only sent waves through one industry, but all of them.

AI lets you spin many threads the same way. Using AI will undoubtedly increase your productivity on tasks and lower the ‘cost’ on your productivity from other tasks.

How you choose to adapt will define your future.

The Collinge Automation Matrix

A little self indulgent to name it after myself? Maybe. But every other matrix seems to be named after someone: Eisenhower’s, Ansoff’s etcetera.

The Collinge Automation Matrix will make it easy for you to assess which tasks are your priorities, and which can be made more efficient using AI automation.

This will allow you to be more productive across your work.

Let’s dive deeper into the two questions this matrix asks of you.

Could this task be automated?

As with most questions, you can likely break this down with even more questions:

• How complex would it be to automate?

• How costly would the automation be?

• How accurate would the result be?

Should this task be automated?

This is certainly the more complex of the two. It relies on an understanding of AI ethics.

• Is it right to automate this task?

• Is it a human task? (One that requires human input to be of real value.)

• What is the risk if the result is inaccurate?

Let’s go through some examples:

COULD + SHOULD: Automate it!

This one is pretty simple.

If you needed to organise files based on their content, you COULD do it by automation.

You would have an AI model analyse the content, then assign it to one of your provided categories.

You SHOULD do it because the risk is low.

If something is put in the wrong category you could simply manually move it, and it is not necessarily a human task.

(Obviously, the “SHOULD” of each situation will be unique, but in these examples I will make some assumptions.)

COULD + SHOULD NOT: Use AI to help.

I COULD use AI to automate my writing.

But I SHOULD NOT as it is a human task.

An AI model could write probably quite a good article about how to use AI to increase productivity, but it wouldn’t be able to randomly decide to show you this funny picture of a cat burrito.

Hopefully you understand my point.

AI is undoubtedly fantastic at writing, likely better than me. But it wouldn’t quite be human.

Writing is a way of connecting with the reader, so if there isn’t a human on the other side it will not feel genuine.

Instead use AI to help you complete the task.

I asked ChatGPT to help me outline and structure this newsletter!

Use whichever AI model best suits your needs for the task you are completing.

COULD NOT + SHOULD: Systemise it.

This one is a touch more complex in theory.

Maybe the expected result isn’t quite accurate enough yet, so you COULD NOT automate it.

But it takes up a lot of time and it SHOULD be automated as it isn’t a human task.

In this situation, you should systemise the process.

Make a step by step guide of how to achieve the end goal.

Each of these steps will be a task in itself. Some of these smaller tasks can likely be automated along the way.

COULD NOT + SHOULD NOT: Focus on it!

If I’m designing a custom AI product for a client, I COULD NOT automate it as each solution would be different.

I SHOULD NOT automate it as the risk of a poor outcome would be high and it could reflect badly on my business.

This is where I should ‘spend’ my productivity.

Tasks which fall into this category should be your absolute focus. Given that they cannot and should not be automated, they are of the highest priority.

Let’s wrap it up.

You should now have a solid understanding of how AI can make your life easier, and your work more productive.

You should also now hopefully view productivity as a limited resource. This style of thinking will force you to be purposeful about how you spend it.

If you do find this useful send me a message on X, formerly twitter, and let me know how it’s been working for you. https://x.com/romancollingeai?s=21&t=Jow7he7yBB4EA5Th-sSbCg

Thanks for your time!

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