Every week, as a solo business owner, I have an entire list of tasks that need to get done on top of my client work. If they don’t get done by Friday, they’re staring at me when I begin work again the following Monday.
The easiest tasks to push off are those that aren’t mission-critical or time-sensitive. But that doesn’t mean they don’t matter. Eventually, you might feel like you’re drowning in your task list.
I’ve used automation for years to hand work off to a machine. Automation follows a path you draw for it: If this thing happens, then follow a series of next steps. It worked, but it only got me so far. Most of what was piling up didn’t “fit” inside a neat sequence.
{“blockType”:”mv-promo-block”,”data”:{“imageDesktopUrl”:”https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2025/11/work-better-1.png”,”imageMobileUrl”:”https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2025/11/work-better-mobile-1.png”,”eyebrow”:””,”headline”:”u003Cstrongu003ESubscribe to Work Betteru003C/strongu003E”,”dek”:”Thoughts on the future of work, career pivots, and why work shouldnu0027t suck, by Anna Burgess Yang. To learn more, visit u003Ca href=u0022https://www.workbetter.media/u0022u003Eworkbetter.mediau003C/au003E.”,”subhed”:””,”description”:””,”ctaText”:”SIGN UP”,”ctaUrl”:”https://www.workbetter.media”,”theme”:{“bg”:”#f5f5f5″,”text”:”#000000″,”eyebrow”:”#9aa2aa”,”subhed”:”#ffffff”,”buttonBg”:”#000000″,”buttonHoverBg”:”#3b3f46″,”buttonText”:”#ffffff”},”imageDesktopId”:91457605,”imageMobileId”:91457608,”shareable”:false,”slug”:””,”wpCssClasses”:””}}
AI is more nuanced and can take on more sophisticated work on your behalf. You can hand over the tasks that don’t need your judgment and tell AI to either complete the task autonomously or loop you back in. You might actually feel on top of things (for once).
Determine what tasks you can hand over to AI
The first and most important question when adding artificial intelligence into the mix: Does this task need joy or judgment?
Judgment is the obvious one. You don’t want AI making decisions for you. Instead, it should follow a set of rules. The rules may split down multiple paths for AI to follow, but never substitute a decision that impacts your business or puts information out into the world that you haven’t reviewed.
But joy matters too. There’s work I could hand over and simply won’t because I enjoy it. I joked recently that “There is no joy in filling out a spreadsheet.” I should have added the caveat, “For me.” If you love filling out spreadsheets, don’t let AI steal your joy.
What’s left beyond joy and judgment is usually a lot of administrative work: sorting, organizing, and keeping track of tasks.
Email triage
Triage is a form of sorting. When you open your email, you’re deciding what really needs your attention or a response. Many of mine end up with a firm “Delete.”
Admittedly, email was not one of the first things I handed over to AI, but the inbound emails started to get overwhelming. A scheduled task now runs before the sun rises and adds labels, depending on the type of inquiry. I get a daily recap of anything I need to review.
In some cases, AI crafts responses, but they sit in my Drafts folder. I review, tweak, and hit the “Send” button myself.
Meeting preparation and research
Meeting prep is easy to skip when you’re short on time.
For a potential client, AI can read through a company’s website and hand you a briefing document with talking points before the call. With an existing client, it can go through your call transcripts, files, and old emails to quickly get you back up to speed.
Research is one thing AI tools do really well, so you can send AI off on a research task and pick up the results when it’s done. I recently sent Claude off to research some podcasts and YouTube channels. I got the results, organized neatly in a spreadsheet.
Verification is always your job. Anything you repeat should be double-checked, whether it’s a link, a stat, or something you agreed to six months ago.
Lightweight project management
Even if you have a project management tool, you’re likely still juggling meeting notes, your calendar, your to-do list, and other apps. AI is really good at pulling everything together so you don’t drop the ball. For example, AI can:
- Turn your call transcripts into follow-up items on your to-do list
- Identify “buried requests” in the middle of a long email or a deliverable you haven’t touched for several days
- Search your connected tools and calendar and send you a daily/weekly digest
- Organize files into folders on your Google Drive
I built a dashboard with Claude Code that pulls information from four different sources and gives me one view of my day. Before that, I was checking each tool separately.
AI can’t fix chaos
One thing to keep in mind: You can’t hand off a process you haven’t defined. If how you track your work is chaos right now, all AI does is add more chaos.
“Triage my emails” is not something AI can follow (at least, not well). Instead, you’re providing a series of steps that you would take yourself: Handle X email in X way, and handle Y email in Y way.
Start with tasks where you can clearly identify what AI should do and what type of result you expect. It should match what you would do yourself—just faster and behind the scenes.
{“blockType”:”mv-promo-block”,”data”:{“imageDesktopUrl”:”https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2025/11/work-better-1.png”,”imageMobileUrl”:”https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit/wp-cms-2/2025/11/work-better-mobile-1.png”,”eyebrow”:””,”headline”:”u003Cstrongu003ESubscribe to Work Betteru003C/strongu003E”,”dek”:”Thoughts on the future of work, career pivots, and why work shouldnu0027t suck, by Anna Burgess Yang. To learn more, visit u003Ca href=u0022https://www.workbetter.media/u0022u003Eworkbetter.mediau003C/au003E.”,”subhed”:””,”description”:””,”ctaText”:”SIGN UP”,”ctaUrl”:”https://www.workbetter.media”,”theme”:{“bg”:”#f5f5f5″,”text”:”#000000″,”eyebrow”:”#9aa2aa”,”subhed”:”#ffffff”,”buttonBg”:”#000000″,”buttonHoverBg”:”#3b3f46″,”buttonText”:”#ffffff”},”imageDesktopId”:91457605,”imageMobileId”:91457608,”shareable”:false,”slug”:””,”wpCssClasses”:””}}