Another great episode from Cal Newport. He posits that the biggest impact AI will have on work is not massive white collar job loss, but making those jobs miserable. That's because white collar managers often already evaluate their employees' productivity using bullshit proxy metrics that incentivize busyness, or the appearance of productivity: how many e-mails you are sending today, how "present" you are in Slack, whether you are visibly working at all hours, and so on. It's already exhausting and about to get more so if these AI tools are here to stay.
I wish Newport didn't focus so much on what individuals can do, but in the absence of more systemic change I guess that will have to do. His five suggestions to resist the urge to jump on every stimulus and ultimately get nothing done are:
Plan weekly. On Monday morning, ask yourself what important things that create unambiguous value for your organization must get worked on that week, and prioritize them by finding & protecting time on your calendar. That might involve canceling or rescheduling certain meetings to do so.
Create and maintain an ongoing portfolio. This is a document listing all important initiatives, projects, or accomplishments you are responsible for, so that you can counter the narrative that you don't "look busy enough". The doc should list accomplishments by month, quarter, etc. and include impact / positive consequences. It's a tool you can bring to quarterly reviews, or show to your managers, or use as an instrument to ask for feedback on what should change.
Avoid what AI can do. If a task is something that you could largely automate with LLM queries, then that is a task not making the best use of your unique skills, training, and knowledge. If most of what you are doing is just automated by AI or could soon be automated by AI, then you are vulnerable and bringing it upon yourself.
Pursue upskill projects. Always have some sort of new skill that you are acquiring that's valuable and relevant to your job that will make you more rare and valuable. If possible, connect this to something you are working on for your job. The harder the skill is to acquire, the more you can escape the trap of "AI-accelerated pseudoproductivity" because it's hard-won value that AI can't replicate.
Care about your writing and write well. This is the most straightforward way to differentiate yourself from the LLMs. Take the time to write well; make your emails, reports, or any professional written document extremely clear, succinct, and well-crafted. When everyone else is sending out long reports with bullet-point lists and emojis attached to everything with convoluted AI-generated language, you are sending out clear and concise communications that have a point and for which its meaning is crystal clear. Set yourself up as an alternative.
Newport argues convincingly that this is the time to stop relying on visible activity as your main marker of value, and instead rely upon actual hard-won accomplishments that you did and can point to. Do the hard work of doing the hard work.