Transform Your Time Management with AI

Generative AI is typically being used for content creation, ideation & strategy, research and data analysis. But are we missing a trick?

Speak to anyone in PR and comms for a few minutes and the topic of time management is bound to come up. The ability to simultaneously juggle competing priorities can be one of the biggest challenges of the job, whether you’re agency-side or in-house.

AI can be primed to help.

That’s because the cornerstone of good time management is visibility and priorities. And AI is brilliant at both.

Email management

Take emails and your calendar. You can use AI to categorise, prioritise and draft responses.

Although there are very real privacy concerns (as it means AI will be reading all your emails) Copilot and Gemini are good starting points. Fyxer and Superhuman are the next gen and I predict we will all be using something like this in the near future.

You can ask it:

• “What should be on my radar from email last week?”
• “Who hasn’t yet responded to my emails?”
• “How much time do I have for deep work this week?”

AI can therefore do the time-consuming work around information retrieval and prioritisation, leaving you the brain space to do the deeper thinking.

Decision fatigue

Spot the difference:

“I will go for a run at 7.30 tomorrow morning and I’ve put my running kit out ready.”

“I might go for a run tomorrow, maybe at lunchtime or possibly after work this evening – whenever I get the chance.”

I’m willing to bet that the first person actually goes for their run and the second person never gets around to it.

It’s not a major decision to decide on the timing of a run but actually making that decision can be harder than it sounds. And it has implications for whether you actually DO the thing.

It’s not just running, of course! Our lives are full of these decisions. By midday, it’s no wonder most of us have decision fatigue.

AI can really help to overcome the sense of exhaustion that occurs when we have to make so many decisions.

It can reduce minor decisions. Ask:

“Give me three options for…”

It can help you to plan with structure. Ask:

“Help me order my to-do list. Ask me any questions you need.”

And it can break down complex decisions. Ask:

“Help me think through this project…”

What I really love about using AI in this way is that it can be a non-judgemental partner. Colleagues and line managers can rarely be this objective because they often have one eye on the implications for themselves. That’s human nature, not a criticism.

AI-assisted check-ins

Do you have 11 minutes a day to transform how you manage your time and juggle competing priorities?

According to Microsoft, that’s the time it takes - 11 minutes a day over 11 weeks - to start getting value from Copilot.

I actually think you can start gaining insights after a week or two of what I call “AI-assisted check-ins”. AI will very quickly pick up patterns and give non-judgemental advice on how to better manage your time and prioritise more effectively.

Of course, the more time and information you give it, the more you’ll get out.

You can explore, in an objective way, why you avoid certain tasks and identify hidden time drains, environmental issues and systemic gaps that may be preventing you from making headway.

If you understand the blockers, you’ll be better able to tackle the root causes and get yourself back on track.

Have a go and let me know how you get on!