AI Tools Are Ruining Your Productivity (Not Helping It)

I tested 12 AI productivity tools over 4 months. 9 made me slower. $127 wasted on subscriptions.

Everyone says AI will make you 10x more productive. I believed them. I tried Notion AI, ChatGPT Plus, Jasper, Copy.ai, and 8 others.

Result? I spent more time prompting AI than doing the actual work.

The Problem

AI tools require too much context. Every AI needs you to explain what you want. That takes time. Often more time than just doing it yourself.

Example: Writing a project proposal. With AI: 10 minutes explaining the project, 5 minutes reviewing AI output, 8 minutes editing mistakes. Total: 23 minutes.

Without AI: Just write it. 18 minutes. Done.

AI makes bad assumptions. ChatGPT gave me a meal prep plan with foods I'm allergic to. I spent 15 minutes fixing it.

The "review tax" is real. You can't trust AI output. You have to check everything. That takes time.

What Actually Works

1. Narrow, specific tools. Not "AI that does everything." Tools that solve ONE problem well.

2. No-setup required. If it takes 20 minutes to configure, it's not saving you time.

3. Transparent output. You should be able to see exactly what it's doing. No black box magic.

That's why we built simple, focused planning tools. No AI bloat. Just fast, practical plans you can use immediately.