The five-hour audit: finding the work AI should do for you

Most people start with AI by asking what it can do. A better starting point is asking what you do. Specifically, repeatedly, every week.

Keep a boring log

For five working days, write down every task that takes longer than ten minutes. One line each: what it was, how long it took, and whether you've done something similar before. Don't optimise yet. Just notice.

Look for shapes

By Friday you'll see patterns: status updates, first drafts, meeting notes, research summaries, answers to the same five questions. These tasks have a predictable shape, and predictable shapes are exactly what AI handles well.

Automate the shape, keep the judgment.

Pick one, not ten

Choose the single most frequent task and write a proper brief for it. Use it every time for two weeks, improving it each time it disappoints you. That one brief will teach you more than a hundred experiments.

The full system, briefs, libraries, checkpoints and reviews, is the heart of The AI Edge.