(A five-minute read from Marlo “Guru of Geek” Anderson)
Why I Stopped Folding Socks by Hand … and Other Revelations
If you’ve ever caught yourself alphabetizing the spice rack at 1 a.m. instead of finishing that brilliant business idea, welcome to the club. I spent years chasing busywork, convinced productivity was a badge of honor. Then AI tapped me on the shoulder, politely whispered, “Psst … you know I can do that, right?”—and four hours of my day evaporated in the best possible way.
Automation isn’t about turning you into a couch-surfing cyborg; it’s about clearing the runway so your best ideas can take off. Below are the tactics I use daily—tested in the wild at National Day Calendar, The Tech Ranch, and the ever-expanding galaxy of “All Things Marlo.” Steal them, tweak them, celebrate every day with the time you win back.
1. Give Your Inbox a Bouncer
The Pain: Email is that party crasher who shows up uninvited, eats the dip, and leaves you with 1,247 unread messages.
The Fix:
- Smart Filters: In Gmail or Outlook, auto-label anything not addressed directly to you and tuck it into a “Later” folder.
- AI Summaries: Pipe newsletters into a tool like Zapier + OpenAI. My bot “Abby Prime” digests 50 emails into a three-paragraph morning brief. I sip coffee; she sorts chaos.
- One-Click Replies: Draft canned responses—“Thanks, noted!” “Schedule here,” etc.—and let your email client suggest them. You’ll sound polite while barely lifting a finger.
Time saved: 45 minutes/day
2. Turn Voice Notes into Gold
I brainstorm while driving across North Dakota’s endless prairie. A quick voice memo lands in Google Recorder, which auto-transcribes. A Zap fires that transcript to Notion where an AI agent:
- Extracts action items.
- Drafts a to-do list in plain English.
- Files ideas under tagged projects so I can find them later without spelunking through audio files.
No more “What the heck did I say near mile marker 172?” moments.
3. The One-Minute Meeting Prep
Before any call, I have ChatGPT scan the calendar invite, pull the last thread of email chatter with that client, and spit out a three-bullet briefing:
- Status since last call
- Likely questions
- My proposed next step
It hits my Apple Watch ten minutes prior. I look like I spent an hour researching; in truth, I was in the studio recording Destination Celebration.
4. Content Creation on Autopilot (Without Sounding Robotic)
Celebrate Every Day pumps out articles, radio scripts, and social posts. The cheat code:
- Templates, not Blank Pages: I keep proven outlines for blog posts, Facebook captions, and press releases. AI populates the structure; I add flavor.
- Image Pairing: Midjourney or DALL·E generates eye-catching visuals in seconds. I give it a style cue (“retro postcard meets modern flat design”) and iterate.
- Bulk Scheduling: Buffer and Hootsuite connect via API, letting the bot queue a week’s content in one go. Friday afternoon becomes “free-time Friday” again.
5. Personal Knowledge Base: Your External Brain
Dump everything—meeting notes, PDFs, random shower thoughts—into a searchable tool like Mem or Notion AI. Train an assistant on that data:
“Abby, how many National Days did I approve last quarter?”
Boom: instant answer, complete with source links. Memory upgrade: 100 percent, headaches: zero.
6. Real-World Automation: Beyond the Screen
- Smart Plugs & Routines: My studio lights turn on when my calendar says “Podcast.” The AC drops two degrees when the teleprompter boots up.
- IFTTT Location Triggers: When I pull into the driveway, the coffee maker preheats for my afternoon roast. Because genius isn’t possible without caffeine.
- Robot Mower “Astro”: Mows the lawn while I script podcast segments. The neighborhood kids call him Wall-E’s cousin. I call him time well spent.
7. AI as Brainstorming Buddy
Instead of doom-scrolling, I open ChatGPT with a single prompt:“Ask me ten questions that will improve my next keynote.”
Fifteen minutes later, I’ve mapped new anecdotes, snagged a stats source, and outlined slides—all while flying 30,000 feet over Kansas.
8. Guardrails & Good Sense
Automation isn’t “set it and forget it.” Build checkpoints:
- Daily Digest: A single email summarizing every bot’s activity so nothing runs amok.
- Human-in-the-Loop: For customer-facing replies or big financial decisions, require manual approval.
- Ethical Lens: Respect privacy, cite AI-generated content, and remember that your reputation still rides on the output.
Quick-Start Checklist
- Pick One Draining Task. Email? Social media captions? Weekly reports?
- Map the Steps. Write them out. (Bots can’t read your mind—yet.)
- Choose a Tool. Zapier for workflows, Replit to code custom scripts, Siri/Google Assistant for voice triggers.
- Test Small. Run it for a day. Note snags, tweak prompts.
- Celebrate. Use reclaimed minutes to learn guitar, launch a side hustle, or just watch the sunset. (Sunset mode is still manual—and that’s okay.)
Final Thought: The Human Advantage
AI lifts the weight; you lift the vision. When the mundane melts away, creativity, connection, and impact rush in to fill the space. That’s the promise of automation—and the heartbeat behind my mantra:
Automate the mundane – accelerate your awesome!
Now go set a bot loose on something boring and text me what you create with the time you saved. Remember: every day is worth celebrating—especially the ones where the machines did the dishes.