Wonder Tools

I’ve never had a secretary before. Or a chief of staff.
With these AI agents, I suddenly feel like I have both.
This week, among other things, they:
* Researched and booked Amtrak train tickets for me
* Briefed me about important overnight emails and upcoming meetings
* Surfaced an important contract I had overlooked
* Turned my bookshelf into a visual reading list
Unlike older chatbots, these agents can take action proactively without waiting for a prompt. They can go online and research or buy things, make reservations, or fill in forms. They can look through various documents, transcripts, and emails to help you finish tedious projects.
I’m testing 12 agents
Agents are the biggest step forward for AI this year. I’m testing a dozen to compare their reliability, features, and design: Thine, Instinct, ChatGPT’s Dots, Town, Hark, Muse, Poke, Ambi, Sentience, Extra, Slashy, and Claude’s Duet.
My early favorites: Dots, Slashy, and Hark
* Dots has helped me spot calendar conflicts and find and prepare materials I need for work. I use it several times a day.
* Slashy has changed how I manage email. It’s a strong alternative to Superhuman, the email app I’ve used for years. Slashy puts an AI agent inside my inbox.
* Hark has a standout design. It’s been reliable for shopping and reservations.
Other observations
* Business agents will be a separate category. Town, for example, is easy to use and well-designed, but its features are tuned to small businesses and mid-market firms.
* These are early impressions. I’ll share more as the tools develop. I’m working on a post about Slashy and how to use AI to help with email overload. The inbox is where I see early agents being most helpful.
One is enough
Start with one agent that does what you need. I’m testing a bunch for now, but ultimately I’ll prioritize just a few with distinct strengths.
What they cost
Some agents, like Instinct, Hark, and Muse, start out free. Others require a paid subscription.
* Dots is so far only available on ChatGPT’s Pro plan, which starts at $100/month.
* Town starts free, but the Pro plan is $49/month.
* Hark starts free. Upgrade for $20/month for more AI usage or $100/month for full power.
* Thine is free to start. It’s $15/month or $120/year for extra capabilities.
* Pricing for other agents is still taking shape. You can test many for free. Before connecting your accounts, check on ongoing costs and how each service uses your data.
Connect your email, calendar, and files
Thine and Dots became much more useful as soon as I connected them to my email, calendar, documents, and Granola meeting transcripts. Now they have a broad view of my projects for context, as well as a detailed understanding of my emails and tasks. Drawing on meeting transcripts, they even understand what I’ve promised to do.
2 reasons to try an AI agent
* They save time by handling pesky tasks that used to take hours. Examples:
* Hark coordinated a tricky travel itinerary and handled the booking on Amtrak’s clunky site.
* Dots pulled a batch of related emails into a doc, a task that would otherwise have taken me 45 minutes.
* They prevent headaches. They don’t wait for me to send a prompt. Numerous times they’ve helped me avoid costly errors. Examples:
* Dots found an appointment mentioned in a buried email and alerted me that it was missing from my calendar.
* Thine reminded me to send an important email I had forgotten.
5 differences between agents and chatbots
* They’re easier to get started with. Claude Code, Codex, and tools like Hermes Agent are at least as powerful as most agents I’m describing here, but they can seem intimidating. Setting them up is a bit like learning to use a manual camera. You have to figure out which connections to enable, which plugins to add, and which skills to install. Agents like Thine, Hark, and Town are more like point-and-shoot cameras. They guide you through setup and connections to your calendar, email, Notion, etc., with explanations in plain language.
* You text them like a person. Many agents, like Instinct, Poke, and Slashy, work in SMS, iMessage, or WhatsApp. So you don’t have to open an app or browser tab. It’s like messaging a colleague instead of walking over to the help desk.
* They reach out to you. Chatbots wait for your prompt. You might go days without remembering to use one. Agents send morning briefings, flag missing details on your calendar, and nudge you about unsent drafts. It’s the difference between a chief of staff who knocks on your door versus a reference librarian waiting at a desk.
* Flexible models. Most agents can switch among models from different AI providers, like travel agents who can book any airline. ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude rely primarily on their own models.
* You have one ongoing conversation, not hundreds of chats. I like how Thine and Dots keep a single long-running thread. Both remember our past conversations reliably. Chatbots I use scatter my history across lots of threads, which can make older exchanges hard to find.
The lines are blurring
For now the differences are noticeable, but major AI companies are adding similar capabilities. OpenAI’s Dots is already an excellent, if expensive, agent, and Claude Duet arrived on October 23.
I avoided the first generation of AI agents, like OpenClaw, because they seemed complex and risky. But several agents I’m testing are easy to use, and free to try.
What I hand off, and what I don’t
My goal isn’t to outsource my thinking or writing. I enjoy both. I want agents to handle background tasks like filing, organizing, and checking email for important messages. Or filling in annoying online forms. That leaves me more time to concentrate, with less worry that I might be missing an important message or task.
4 ways my AI chief of staff helps
1. Tame my inbox
I now get three times as many emails as I did three years ago. Many are AI-generated marketing or PR messages. With that email slop strewn across my three addresses, it’s easy to miss an important message among more than 1,000 emails a week. AI agents help me:
* Summarize important new messages. At 8 a.m. my agents text me a summary of important emails from the previous evening and overnight. Instead of starting the day by scanning through hundreds of messages, I can just act on five important ones.
* Handle irrelevant email for me. I respond myself to important and personal messages. But I don’t have the four hours it would take to reply to the hundreds of unsolicited, irrelevant emails I get every day. My agent can sort and archive those, or, in some cases, suggest quick “no, thank you” notes I can edit.
2. Plan my day
Mapping out my day at 8:30 a.m. means fewer decisions later, when I’m less focused, about what I should be doing.
My agents can look at my calendar, email, project materials, task list, and notes to suggest a detailed plan based on my preferences. They know I need breaks for stretching and meditation, a lunchtime walk, and time to call Mom. They use data from Rize, my time-tracking app, to estimate how long tasks usually take me.
During my Friday review, they help me reflect on next week’s priorities, tasks that need follow-up, and long-term projects to start. I head into the weekend feeling less stressed.
3. Research tricky decisions
In a day, I might have five to 10 questions an AI butler can help me research. I recently needed to turn 11 lengthy Google Docs into a printed book. I had to compare file conversion tools, check prices and reviews for book-printing services, and understand the technical steps.
That research would once have taken me an hour or more. This time I asked an agent to handle it and went back to preparing to teach. About five minutes later, my agent delivered an excellent recommendation in the Google Doc I’d requested.
I don’t like shopping. But I like knowing I’m getting a well-reviewed product or service at a good price. Hark and Instinct can compare options, recommend what to buy, and set up the purchase for me to confirm. Caveat: Check how free shopping agents make money, and whether their recommendations include paid placements.
4. Organize files
Connect an AI assistant to your files and work apps, like Google Drive, Slack, and Notion. Then ask it to move documents between folders. You can ask it to summarize document changes or ticket activity, or to create a new dashboard.
The hardest part is deciding what to delegate. I often ask my agents to suggest useful tasks they can handle. I tell them what tasks I find most annoying, what I enjoy doing myself, and what I can’t risk messing up.
Caveats
* A new monthly bill. If you already pay for ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude, adding another AI bill may seem extravagant. But for what will likely end up costing about $5 a week, you get a 24/7 assistant. If that saves you time and stress, it may feel worth it. As competition heats up, your main AI subscription may soon include an agent. For now, it’s like streaming. Netflix alone might be enough for some, but others happily pay for Hulu, Apple TV, and Disney+ too.
* Expect periodic roadblocks. The services are still new. One told me it could send me a text, but not an email. Another said it could open docs from only one of my Google accounts. These annoyances can stall an otherwise useful task. Some problems have quick fixes. Others require workarounds while these services develop. I remember having to use two separate computers when dial-up Internet meant waiting minutes for each Web page to load.
* Connecting your accounts can be a nuisance. Assistants need permission to access your accounts. That’s important for protecting your security. But it can create headaches when you have multiple Gmail accounts, extra sign-in steps, or workplace restrictions. I’m glad security protections prevent random people from logging into my accounts. But expect some setup friction.
* Some won’t survive. For now, the money is flowing freely. Town raised $108 million this week at a $1 billion valuation and Instinct raised $1 billion recently. (My interview with Town’s CEO will appear soon in Fast Company.) As individuals and businesses choose their agents, subscription fatigue may limit how many they’re willing to pay for.
The bottom line: If you haven’t yet experimented with an AI agent, start a free trial. Assign a few research, summarization, and shopping tasks. Judge it by the usefulness of its response, the time it saves, and how easy it is to use. Leave a comment to share your impressions 👇


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The hardest part of writing is the first 10 minutes. Get past that, and momentum kicks in.
Once you start scribbling a few sentences, you’re on your way.
Having gotten stuck and unstuck a lot over the past 325 weeks of writing this newsletter, I’ve found a few tricks that help. Pick one to try, and leave a comment to share what you do to get unstuck.
As a little experiment, I’ve made an Unstuck Studio page to accompany this post and to help you get unstuck playfully.
As Daniel Pink explains, starting comes first.
“Action precedes motivation, not the other way around.”
When I’m stuck, I dictate rather than battle my inner critic.
The critic assumes there’s a better word for whatever I’m typing. It urges my fingers to stop and wait. When I’m rambling with my voice, the critic is quiet.
We call an idea freeze writer’s block, not talker’s block. When we speak informally, ideas just flow. Because spoken words disappear into air, it’s easier to avoid self-editing. In a dictated draft, clunky first words are OK because they get us closer to what we’re trying to convey.
Tools I use for dictating first drafts
* Google Docs voice typing works in more than 100 languages. In English you can add punctuation verbally or say things like “new paragraph.” See more of my favorite Google Docs tips and tricks. Free.
* Letterly works well on mobile or desktop. In addition to transcribing, it can give you a summary, or format your text. (It’s now a free perk for paid Wonder Tools subscribers.) Free with limits, or $80/year.
* Wispr Flow lets me dictate into any app or site on my laptop or phone. It works surprisingly well even if I whisper, which helps around other people. I just double-tap my Mac function key and start talking. Free to start; $12/month for pro features.
* Lispr.ai is a reliable Mac option. It can also translate your dictation. Free.
Simple alternatives: iOS Voice Memos and Notes transcribe your speech for free. On Android, try Google Keep.
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The Most Dangerous Writing App erases your words if you stop typing before your timer ends. Choose a three or five minute sprint, or set a word target. Once you get the hang of it, your hands will keep moving. Edit later. Free
Ilys is an even more challenging way to force yourself to keep writing. It shows your typing just one letter at a time. When your session is over, you can review and edit your words.
Free for basic use. Sessions are capped at 808 words, which is more than enough for freewriting. A subscription is $11/month, but I don’t need the extras.
Mind maps help you focus on concepts and ideas, rather than piling words onto the page. Connect your ideas to one another visually. Put one word down. Add a picture if you want. Pretty soon you have an outline to build on.
When I’m writing something complex or juggling lots of ideas, mind mapping allows me to assemble the bones of a piece efficiently. Use Apple’s free Freeform app on iOS or Mac. Or try simple apps like Mindmup or Bubbl.us. Both are free for up to three maps. Miro and Mural, which offer more advanced design features, also give you three free boards.
Rather than using AI to write, ask it to interview you. Or push it to provoke you. I find that helps me surface my own thoughts.
Prompts to try
* “Interview me about this. Ask one question at a time. Push me for depth.”
* “Provoke me. Give me a controversial statement to respond to.”
* “Push me to sharpen my viewpoint by pointing out potential blind spots in the ideas I’m starting to write about.”
* “Ask me five intriguing questions about this. Don’t answer any of them.”
* “Act as a tough mentor. Give me five unconventional writing prompts to pick from ….”
* “Ask a surprising question I’ve not heard before …. Include a feasible writing target to complete in the next 10 minutes.”
This last tactic is tech-free.
* Grab a piece of blank paper.
* Fold it in half three times. You now have 8 rectangles.
* Challenge yourself to put one sentence or phrase into each of the boxes. Set a timer to repeat every minute. Move to the next box each time it rings. Eight minutes later, you have a bunch of sentences to build on.
Slogans tell us that discipline propels people toward accomplishments. That sounds logical. But when I’m staring at a cursor, discipline alone doesn’t clear the fog. These tactics do. What helps you get unstuck? Leave a comment. 👇
More writing tool recommendations


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I subscribe to hundreds of newsletters. Most weeks I read only a fraction. These are the dozen free ones I turn to first, all written by humans, plus five bonus picks from two guests. Share your favorites as a comment below.
1. Dense Discovery by Kai Brach
The best curated email I get. I find interesting sites, stories, and ideas in each post. It’s also gorgeously designed. It has a 63% open rate, roughly double the typical newsletter. For a sample, check out the recent “Cynicism is not a strategy” issue.
2. NextDraft by Dave Pell
I abhor the frenzy of 24-hour news cycles. But it’s a pleasure reading Pell’s daily NextDraft. He summarizes the day’s most interesting stories with a warm sense of humor, avoiding the anxiety-provoking tone of nightly TV news. He always includes at least one offbeat story that’s fun to share. WTF Just Happened Today also serves up a clear, concise take on today’s top U.S. news.
3. Cool Tools by JR Raphael
I always learn something from Raphael’s posts. Instead of chasing tech headlines, he tests and explains useful sites and services. His separate Android Intelligence email catches me up on new apps outside the Apple world.
I also like Recomendo. The three contributors spotlight six useful things in each issue, from a fantastic site, book, or video to an unusual hardware tool or a helpful Reddit community.
4. One Useful Thing by Ethan Mollick
The most insightful AI newsletter I read. Mollick, a Wharton professor, shares practical AI experiments with his 480,000 subscribers, testing what the tools can and can’t do well. Every few months he writes an opinionated guide, like this guide to which AI platforms you should try. His latest post features an elaborate music video he had Claude compose with Suno. His book Co-Intelligence, published in April 2024, remains a helpful AI primer. I’m looking forward to his next book, Co-Existence, coming out October 20.
5. Hulry by Rahul Chowdhury
Chowdhury blends common sense with creativity. His recent post, 21 Productivity Hacks I’ve Picked Up Over the Years, is a good example of his straightforward, practical takes. Like Dense Discovery, his Hulry posts are full of well-chosen finds. Each issue has something handy or quirky that’s fun to read about.
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6. Popular Information by Judd Legum
The best example of an independent investigative journalist making the Substack model work. It’s completely free to read, supported by paid subscribers, with no ads. Legum aptly describes his project as “News for people who give a damn.”
His accountability scoops on corruption and injustice lead to change. They’re full of carefully reported details and regularly picked up by major news outlets. One example of his impact: in 2020, after his reporting about Olive Garden, its parent company started providing paid sick leave to about 170,000 employees across 1,779 restaurants.
7. Second Rough Draft by Richard J. Tofel
Read this excellent newsletter if you’re interested in the state of contemporary journalism. Having been ProPublica’s first employee and its president from 2013 until 2021, Tofel brings experience, expertise, and evidence to his posts. He’s warned that many of the nation’s for-profit metro newspapers are “going out of business in slow motion.” His posts show how and why that’s happening, while also offering insight into the nonprofit news world.
8. Dr Phil’s Newsletter by Dr Philippa Hardman
Not that Dr. Phil. Hardman, a Cambridge University scholar, shares research-backed insights about how AI affects learning and teaching. Posts feature clear charts, frameworks, and novel ideas about AI and education. One recent writeup I appreciated explored the research on whether AI-generated videos actually help people learn.
9. The Pink Report by Daniel Pink
I’ve never met Pink, but I learn from him every week. His weekly pieces work as brief classes in wisdom, like 30 cheat codes for life and six skills humans need in the AI era. I especially enjoy Pink’s reading recommendations, like 11 essential books for 2026 summarized in 12 minutes. He’s as skillful at writing hundreds of pages as he is at drafting short videos. His book When explores the best times to do things. Watch his YouTube videos for short versions of his advice.
10. 3-2-1 by James Clear
I like Clear’s brevity. Three short ideas, two quotes, and one question to ponder. The formula has worked well enough to attract 3 million subscribers, more than any other publication on this list. I wish he’d write another book, given how good Atomic Habits was.
11. Techmeme
I check Techmeme daily to keep up with tech news. Its headlines sum up what’s new with AI and tech and link to multiple takes on top stories. There are many tech portals and aggregators, but this one has remained in my rotation year after year.
Two newer alternatives: Set up custom scheduled reports with Claude or ChatGPT. List your favorite topics, angles or outlets to highlight/avoid, and how often you want it. If you prefer manual curation, use Mailbrew to assemble your own digest. (Read my take).
12. Nice News
When I feel worn down by the news, I turn to this sweeter space. It’s full of hopeful pieces, but not random raccoon GIFs. One recent piece celebrated medical research breakthroughs, while another was titled “‘16,648 Reasons to Live’: Paper Highlights the Power of Small Joys for Suicide Prevention.”
To add to my recommendation list, I invited James Potter to share two of his favorite newsletters. He runs Reletter, which tracks around 7 million newsletters across Substack, Beehiiv, LinkedIn, Ghost, and more.
Potter recently mapped how newsletters cluster based on the links they share (reletter.com/graph). He publishes a weekly ranking of the most-cited links. It’s a superb resource for keeping tabs on what people link to most.
13. Stratechery by Ben Thompson
James: I’ve paid for Stratechery since 2021. If I could only keep one newsletter it would be this one. Thompson writes about the business strategy behind tech news. Whenever something happens, he works out who ends up with power over whom. His main tool is a framework he calls Aggregation Theory, which says that whoever owns the relationship with users gets leverage over everyone supplying them. He’s great at weaving his past analysis into current issues and tying everything together.Recently he wrote an interesting article about the idea of AI agents doing your shopping for you. Walmart was one of the first big retailers to sign up for OpenAI’s Instant Checkout. Walmart pulled out a few months later because orders placed through ChatGPT converted at a third of the rate of its own site and app, and the baskets were smaller too.
14. Benedict Evans
I read Evans’s email every week. It’s how I catch up on anything in tech that I missed. I also like his way of seeing the world. He spent years as an analyst and was a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Each week he picks the tech stories that mattered and adds a few lines of context to each, often with a dry joke. He’s good at checking hype against the numbers.
When SpaceX filed to go public, for example, Evans wrote about how xAI’s data center provides services to Anthropic for $15 billion a year, more than SpaceX’s entire launch business.
❤️ What newsletter do you like? Leave a comment ↙️
Jeremy: To close, I asked Julia Sherwin to share her favorite newsletters. Julia is an assistant publisher at GlobalPost Media. She’s also executive director of the GlobalPost in the Classroom, a program that offers free subscriptions to faculty and students at high schools and universities worldwide.
I asked for Julia’s take because I love GlobalPost. It’s great for discovering interesting issues in countries around the world. The editors pick fascinating focal points each day beyond the conflicts, natural disasters, and political battles that dominate much of U.S. international coverage.
15. Tangle
Julia: This free newsletter provides insights into the political forces within America, as well as its international activities. The coverage is consistently honest and nonpartisan. Editor Isaac Saul and his writers focus on one major issue each day, giving readers more than the surface view. Tangle also has an accompanying podcast. The newsletter and podcast feature commentary from both the left and right. A recent issue clarified complex elements of the U.S.-Venezuela oil deal.
16. Global Highlights Newsletter from The Conversation
This is a free, twice-weekly selection of articles written by academics and researchers from around the world. It helps readers understand current geopolitics, scientific news, and historical context.
17. GlobalPost
Julia: Finally, a shameless plug. I work here, but I genuinely haven’t found a news source quite like it: GlobalPost is a nonpartisan daily newsletter devoted entirely to international news: four top stories, plus a fifth dedicated to a scientific discovery.
Recent editions have covered everything from ancient Roman firefighters to scientists recreating the primordial “soup” of the Big Bang to a Western Han dynasty site in China where archaeologists uncovered ancient game boards.
A full subscription is $46 a year with a 14-day free trial. But students and faculty at middle schools, high schools, and colleges can sign up to read it for free.


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Now that fall is here, my focus has been fragile.
Noise, notifications, news, and email grab at my attention.
To help cope with distractions, I've stitched together a focus toolkit with apps, sites, and sounds. Some are new, others old. My goal this season is to concentrate for a bit longer when my attention might otherwise drift. I hope this collection will be useful for you too.
Stop email interruptions 📧
Inbox Pause
This simple email add-on temporarily freezes what you see in your inbox. Any new messages will show up as soon as you un-pause.
Price and platforms: Free for basic use. For extra features, like custom scheduling or hearing from select senders during pauses, get the $15/month pro account. Works with Gmail and Outlook online or on the iPhone. An alternative free option: Pause Gmail
Avoid distracting sites 💻
News Feed Eradicator
Get rid of the addictive endless feed on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Look instead at whatever accounts you’re actually interested in.
Price and platforms: Free. Chrome only.
Raycast Focus Mode
Block email and distractions during short, focused, work sprints.
Price and platforms: Free. It can automatically block sites for you in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox (and related browsers modeled on WebKit, Chromium, and Firefox).
SelfControl ⏳
Pick a list of sites to block. Set a timer for deep work. While it’s active, you won’t be able to use Facebook, email, or whatever you’ve blacklisted, even if you restart your computer.
Price and platforms: SelfControl is free for Mac. It’s open-source and not fancy.
Alternative: Cold Turkey is a more polished free Windows and Mac alternative for blocking sites. The pro version costs $45 for a lifetime license ($36 for students) for advanced features like blocking applications.
Forest App
Rather than blocking sites or apps, Forest helps you avoid wasting time on your phone by rewarding you for not touching it. Your virtual trees grow until you pick up your phone. The approach seems to resonate: 60 million people have used this app. 🌳
Price and platforms: Free for iOS and Android. A paid subscription unlocks extra features.
Apple Screen Time
Set time limits on apps that tempt you to doomscroll. Count how many notifications your apps send, and see how much screen time you’re logging. The downtime feature is what I use most. It closes my apps at 11pm. I can override that when I need to. But I like that friction nudging me to stop late-night work.
Price and platforms: Free for Macs and iOS devices. Android has a related “Digital Wellbeing” feature. And Windows has focus options. There’s a related Do Not Disturb mode for Mac and iPhone.
Wonder Tools Quick Survey
Help me understand who reads Wonder Tools and what matters to you. It takes about a minute. As a thank you, you’ll get my updated list of 100+ favorite tools in an email within days of submitting it. Your responses are confidential.
Block noise 🔊
Sony Noise Cancelling Headphones
The New York City subway is painfully loud. So I splurged on these over-the-ear WH-1000XM6 headphones. (My previous XM3 pair lasted for seven years until I accidentally bent them.) The battery lasts for several weeks on a single charge.
Price: $460. The XM5 model, also excellent, is $300. Wirecutter’s review (which agrees that Sony’s XM6 model is the best) includes a $100 alternative.
MyNoise
Pick your favorite type of focus sound: a waterfall, a purring cat, white noise, rain, or a dozen others. I like the cafe, where you can adjust the ratio of chatter to kitchen noise. The creator, Stéphane, records real sounds and wrote a manifesto about avoiding AI-generated noise. The newest release: Pigeons of NYC.
Price and platforms: Free, browser-based.
Headspace
This was designed as a meditation app, but I use the focus music without lyrics to block noise around my Times Square office.
Price: $70/year or $10/year for students. Or share six accounts (family, roommates, teammates, etc.) for $100.
A Soft Murmur
Mix a range of sounds to block out city noise or whatever annoys you. Customize and save your own sound mix. Here’s my blend of waves, wind, and white noise.
Price and platforms: Free, browser-based.
Give your body a break 🧍
Wakeout
Take quick exercise breaks with short video loops showing real people doing cardio moves. I like one-minute exercises. The newest version adds little movement games. Body breaks improve my focus.
You can also use Wakeout to pick apps that pause when you’ve been sitting too long. Moving brings back access. (Manoush Zomorodi’s new Body Electric book makes an excellent case for the value of quick movement breaks.)
Price and platforms: The Chrome browser extension is free; a subscription for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch is $70/year or $13/month.
Time Out
Rest your eyes periodically if you work at a screen. I set Time Out to remind me to give my eyes a screen break every 15 minutes. You can choose your own interval. It nudges me to look out the window and stretch. It’s an old app, but it still works.
Price and platforms: Free, optional contributions of $5 to $60. Mac only.
Alternatives: BreakTimer is simple, free, and works on Mac, Windows, and Linux. Restier is a little more polished and also works across platforms; $9 for one device or $15 for two. Lookaway is an elegant Mac option that starts at $19.
Nex Playground
I spend most weekdays standing in front of my computer, so I love how the Nex gets me moving. Its 60+ motion-sensing games are played with your body, not thumbs or controllers. My daughters, wife and I have it linked to our New York City apartment TV and I appreciate how it boosts my energy for evening work. It’s also great for short breaks that reset my focus when I work from home.
Price: $300, plus an optional $89/year subscription for all 60+ games
Hold yourself accountable 🤝
Focusmate
Pair up with an accountability partner online. Pick a time on the site’s calendar when you want to get work done. Choose an interval of 25, 50, or 75 minutes. You’ll be paired with a real person who also wants to stay focused. Log in at the appointed time.
I was originally skeptical about this “body doubling” tactic. I found, though, that an appointment with another human made it feel like a special work interval. It did feel a bit silly to have to meet a random person over Zoom to trick myself into concentrating. But if that’s what works, I’ll do it on occasion.
Price and platforms: No app or download required. Works on any computer or mobile device with a camera and microphone. Free for up to three sessions a week, or $8/month billed annually for unlimited.
Stickk
Pick a goal and create your own commitment contract. You can pledge to donate to a cause you don’t support if you fail to follow through on your resolution.
Price and platforms: Web-based. No cost beyond what you decide to commit.
BeeMinder
Make commitments tied to data you sync. Works with categories like time spent on Facebook or whatever else you choose to sync from Toggl, Fitbit, or other time or health-tracking platforms. Here’s a video explainer.
Price and platforms: Web-based. Free or $8/month for extra features.
Learn new strategies 📚
Tranquility by Tuesday
My favorite book by Laura Vanderkam offers nine ways to make time for what matters. I like her suggestion about carving out a time slot toward the end of each week expressly for finishing things you’ve fallen behind on. I enjoyed talking with her about her latest book, and you can read more of her tips in her Vanderhacks Substack.
Deep Work
Cal Newport is a computer science professor and New Yorker writer who argues that computers and other devices can ruin our focus if we don’t use them thoughtfully. I found it helpful in exploring how to separate technical and menial tasks from work that requires slow, non-linear thinking.
Indistractable
Nir Eyal stuffed his excellent guide to staying focused with useful insights. It’s full of research-backed ideas for combatting internal and external distractions.
What Helps You Focus? Leave a Comment


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Today I’m sharing a guest post on how to strengthen your AI skills. It’s by Frank Andrade, an AI instructor who has helped thousands of people on Substack master ChatGPT and Claude with beginner-friendly guides and in-depth tutorials.
Frank: The gap between AI novices and experts is growing.
* One group is saving 5 minutes on emails.
* Others are running systems that work while they sleep.
The good news? You can progress faster than you might think.
The Five Stages:
* Stage 1: AI Beginner
* Stage 2: Prompt Crafter ⬅️ (where many people stall)
* Stage 3: AI Literate
* Stage 4: Workflow Builder
* Stage 5: System Builder
Regardless of which stage you’re at, the resources in each section below will help you sharpen your AI skills.
Stage 1: AI Beginner
This is where everyone starts.
You have a ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude account. You use it like a fancier Google. You ask one-off questions. Maybe you ask it to help write a quick email or generate a few images. That’s about it.
It’s useful, but it doesn’t feel like a superpower yet. Don’t worry. We’ll get there.
The first move at this stage is picking your tools.
AI tools fall into two categories:
* General-purpose: Handle multiple tasks including text and visuals
* Task-specific: Focus on a specific kind of content or media type
Frank’s Recommended Toolkit
Start Here
Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini
Worth Exploring
Gemini Notebook, Claude Cowork, and Claude Code
Specialized Tools
Gamma (presentations), Google’s Nano Banana Pro (images), ElevenLabs (audio), HeyGen (video), and Napkin (infographics)
The Big 3: Select a Starting Point
For beginners, the differences between ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude aren’t significant. Still, here are some things to keep in mind:
* ChatGPT: rich feature set, including voice and video modes and image generation
* Gemini: works well with Google Docs, Sheets, Gmail, YouTube, etc.
* Claude: strong at automation and building tools/apps; doesn’t generate photos or videos, though it does assist with design
If you’re a beginner, pick one to focus on. It’s fine to select what your company provides, what’s familiar, or one you’re curious about. Stick with it for a few weeks to see when it saves you time, how well it handles technical tasks, and where it’s most useful.
Frank’s current stack: Claude Cowork, and Claude Code for serious work, Gemini Notebook for learning, and ChatGPT for voice.
Your stack doesn’t have to look like mine. Build your own based on what you actually do.
Here are some of my resources for this exploratory stage:
* The Best AI Tools for 2026
* Your Guide to ChatGPT
* Claude for Beginners: Complete Guide
Stage 2: Prompt Crafter
When it comes to AI chatbots, how you ask is as important as what you ask.
At this stage, get to know this basic prompt structure:
* Instruction: what you want
* Context: background the AI needs to know
* Constraints: length, tone, format, things to avoid
* Example: when possible, provide an example of what “good” looks like
For more detail, refer to this robust prompt formula shared by Anthropic, which makes Claude:
You’ll rarely need to use all the elements of the formula, but it’s good to know they exist. Think of them as a menu to pick from.
At this stage, you should also know a few prompt-improvement tricks. For example, when you finally land on a great answer after a long back-and-forth, ask the AI to write the prompt that would have gotten you there on the first try.
Here are some resources for this stage:
* Prompt Formula
* Prompt Principles
Who Needs to Go Beyond Stage 2?
Stage 2 was enough in 2023.
In 2026, AI has evolved and can run multiple tasks at once on its own. There’s nothing wrong with being in stage 1 or 2 if you’re a casual user who proofreads emails and generates images once in a while
But if you want to master AI, you need more.
That’s what we’ll cover in the next stages:
* Stage 3: Develop AI literacy. Use it as a thinking partner.
* Stage 4: Build AI workflows for the work you do repeatedly.
* Stage 5: Build AI systems that run while you sleep.
Stages 3, 4, and 5 are for professionals, builders, and business leaders who want to turn AI into a competitive advantage.
Stage 3: AI Literate
Understanding how AI actually works changes how you use it.
People with AI fluency know when to trust AI outputs, when to push back, and how to frame problems to get more useful results. That’s what separates those who use AI as a novelty from those who deploy it for its practical advantages.
People at this level know these AI concepts:
* Hallucinations: AI can confidently fabricate facts, stats, and citations. Always verify outputs when accuracy matters.
* Context Window: AI assistants can remember a limited amount per conversation. Once that limit is exceeded, your AI forgets earlier context.
* AI Sycophancy: AI models are trained to be helpful, sometimes to a fault. They may validate your perspective even when you’re wrong. They rarely challenge assumptions unless prompted.
* Knowledge Cutoff Dates: Models generally have training cutoffs. That means they may not know about recent events. If an AI assistant has access to web search, it can gather new info.
* Data Bias: AI inherits biases from training data. Be cautious when using AI for decisions about sensitive topics.
* Privacy & Safety Basics: Know the data policies for your AI tool and your organization. Read about how to use private AI tools for free, and how to set up a private AI toolkit.
Having AI literacy means knowing how to manage AI limitations.
Example: Let’s say you’re a leader who wants to combat AI sycophancy to make better decisions. Create anti-sycophancy instructions that nudge an AI assistant to disagree with you constructively.
At this stage, move from “AI thinks for me” to “AI helps me think better.”
That means using AI as a sparring partner. Here are some ways to do that:
Ask AI to generate different solutions and grade them
“Generate three solutions. Score them from 1 to 10 and justify the score.”
Use AI to critique responses, opinions, plans, etc.
“Be my adversarial friend. Argue the strongest case against Option A. List five reasons why it might fail and the early warning signs. Suggest five ways to reduce those risks.”
Generate questions to refine outputs
“Before drafting anything, ask the five questions that would most alter the outcome of this memo: [1-sentence purpose].”
Resources for this stage:
* How to use AI as a thinking partner
* Before your next big decision, build this Claude skill
* Books to increase your AI literacy
* How to build your AI Mentor
Stage 4: Workflow Builder
The trick at this stage is designing your own workflows, not using more tools.
A workflow is a multi-step process where AI plays a role at each step. You might still drive it by clicking, uploading, and reviewing. But you don’t start from scratch every time.
Here’s a workflow I built:
Learn a foreign language with AI
* Step 1: I answer questions about my learning preferences, challenges, and goals
* Step 2: AI generates a “language DNA profile”
* Step 3: I record myself speaking the language for five to 10 minutes → upload the transcript + my DNA profile → AI gives feedback tailored to me
This is a workflow rather than a full automation because I still trigger each step. I generate a profile. I upload the inputs. I hit go.
Here’s how to build your own AI workflow:
* Pick one task you do repeatedly and turn it into a 3-step workflow
* Pick one or two tools to help you optimize this workflow
* Write a prompt for each step. If possible, add examples of what “good” looks like.
* Test it with a real example and iterate until the output is what you need
* Set up a Project (in ChatGPT or Claude) to keep your context, instructions, and reference files in one place
Resources for this stage:
* Claude Cowork for beginners
* Claude in Chrome
* Claude Skills: part 1, part 2
* Before you use Cowork, create this file
For most professionals, this stage is more than enough. But if you want to multiply your output without working more hours, there’s one more level.
Stage 5: AI System Builder
Stage 4 was about workflows you run. Stage 5 is about systems that run themselves.
There’s a mindset shift here.
You stop asking, “How do I do this faster?” Instead, you frame the question as, “How do I build something that does this for me, even when I’m sleeping?”
Here’s a system I recently built:
The problem: I publish daily Substack notes. Many of my notes are inspired by viral content I find on Instagram, YouTube, and X. The old process took hours every day: saving links, watching videos, downloading images, writing hooks, etc.
The system I built (simplified):
* Collection: My team and I save viral content to a shared group chat throughout the day
* Trigger: At 3 a.m., an automation kicks in (I’m sleeping)
* Processing: Claude reads the group chat, checks what’s new for today, then downloads everything (text, images, videos)
* Generation: Each piece runs through my Substack notes generator (a separate workflow that uses my brand voice and note formats)
* Output: When I wake up, I open my “Today” folder. Inside are 3 subfolders: YouTube, X, and Instagram. Each has media content + 5 draft notes ready to edit and post.
I pick one draft, edit it, and post it. What used to take two to three hours now takes minutes.
To build AI systems, you need tools that go beyond chatbots:
* Claude Cowork: My favorite for delegating things to Claude without being technical. It runs in a sandboxed environment for safety, so you may run into limitations.
* Claude Code: A more advanced version of Cowork. I use it whenever Cowork can’t build something for me. You don’t need to be a coder. You describe what you want, and it builds it. Caveat: it can feel scary at first.
* n8n: Popular no-code tool for AI agents and multi-step systems. I don’t use it, but many builders do.
Resources for this stage:
* How to set up Claude Cowork
* How and why to set up scheduled tasks
* Google Doc list of AI guides
Two Final Tips
* Don’t skip stages. AI literacy and prompting may feel boring compared with building your own app, but they make every stage above them work better.
* You don’t need to be at Stage 5 to get serious value. Many professionals get a 2x improvement just from reaching Stage 3.
Pick one stage above where you are right now and focus on it for the next few weeks. That’s how you’ll go from AI beginner to pro by the end of 2026.
Thanks to Frank Andrade for this guest post.


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