The AI Trap Nobody Is Talking About

When you sit down to do something on your computer or phone, how often do you switch tasks? And I don't mean because someone interrupted you. I mean because you interrupted yourself.

Seriously. How often do you actually finish one meaningful task before moving on to the next? From start to finish. One fell swoop.

This is a battle I am constantly fighting.

I’ll be halfway through writing a paragraph then suddenly I'm up making a matcha, doing the washing, putting on a facemask or finding an excuse to tick one “quick” thing off my arbitrary to-do list.

Call it ADHD. Call it dopamine depletion. Call it too much blue light frying my nervous system. Call it whatever you want. But be honest... do you see it in yourself? And is it holding you back from success?

What I've noticed lately is how much more enticing task-switching has become since AI became part of my workflow.

3PM hits. I’m tired. I’m trying to create, and it’s just not flowing. Suddenly, it feels crucially important to switch over to ChatGPT and have it help me research something.

It might be a skincare ingredient I’m curious about. A consciousness theory I’m trying to wrap my head around. Or an idea for content I want to flesh out for later. (Yeaaaah. “Later”.)

But the problem isn’t the task I’m switching too.

The problem is the uncontrollable jumping betwixt things. The bifurcation of my attention.

No matter how relevant or convincing the new task is, this is the literal opposite of productive. It’s avoidance.

Avoidance of what I like to call the ikgh. (Deeper, and more guttural, than even an ick.)

I call it that because the task-switching always seems to happen at the exact moment things start to feel just a little uncomfortable. For whatever reason (likely something buried deep in my subconscious), my whole system starts to feel a teeeeny weeeny bit ikgh. Hard to put your finger on, but the mind just goes, nope.

I’ve been noticing this. My reward system is not immune to the fragmentation of modern life. And my very human lust for stimulation isn’t going anywhere.

So instead of trying to eliminate the urge, I’ve started experimenting with how I respond to it.

If you’re anything like me - building towards your dreams, wanting anything but an ordinary life, hoping to one day become a multimillionaire so you can afford the most luxurious skincare the human species has to offer - this is something you’ll have to learn to work with too.

Let’s figure it out together.

Here’s what’s been helping me:

1. I don’t do things inside a picture frame of distraction.

If I’m writing, I write in a Word document.

Not the Substack editor. Not ChatGPT. Not Google Docs.

The tabs above me seriously matter. Every notification, every open browser tab, every tempting little rabbit hole increases the chances I’ll bail the second I start feeling the ikgh.

Lately, I’ve been trying to get a FULL first draft out in as close to a distraction-free environment as possible. Then I edit it with my LLM of choice.

2. I’m learning to recognise the moment the ikgh sets in.

This is an on-going practice of self awareness, honesty and realism.

I’ve started paying attention to what the ikgh actually feels like and when it comes.

If the feeling is too subtle for me to perceive because I am not tapped into my body, then I try to pay attention to the behaviour that accompanies it. i.e. the moment I start bouncing between things. I question my own thoughts when it really feels like switching tasks is imperative.

Those distractions are oh-so-persuasive. But when it starts to happen, I do the below.

3. When the ikgh sets in... I move.

I take it as my cue to get up and physically shift the energy. To move my bo-dayyyy.

(And not just to the kitchen to make myself another beverage.)

I go outside.

If the weather is good, I go for a walk. Doesn’t have to be a big one. Fifteen-ish minutes is good. I walk seven minutes in one direction, and seven minutes back.

If the weather is off, I jump up and down and shake my body like a maniac. I do weird faces, too. (That bit is weirdly important for the process?)

Then I come back to my desk and see what happens when I sit down.

4. I keep a notebook nearby.

My brain genuinely believes that every thought is urgent.

If you don’t do this right now, you’ll forget. Quick, open up Mecca and put something in your cart.

Instead of following the thought, I’ll write it down. Quick. Shorthand. To-do list vibes.

Then I go back to whatever I was doing. Most of the time, knowing the thought has somewhere else to take up rent-free space is enough for my brain to let it go so I can forge on.

5. I start my day by reminding myself who TF I am.

This is going to sound lame. But it’s called self-directed neuroplasticity.

Every morning, before I touch my phone, sometimes before I even exercise or meditate or use my red light mask, I grab a notebook and hand write the below statements three times:

I finish one meaningful task before I move on to the next. My attention stays where I consciously choose to place it.

Feel free to steal it and try for yourself.

There is lots of neuroscientific evidence to support the legitimacy of this technique, but if you’re not a journaler by nature (I’m not) just keep it to one or two sentences repeated three times. Don’t overwhelm yourself with a huge new habit when you’re already prone to distraction.

(I say this ‘cos initially I had a list of 15 affirmations to write every morning. Some practices will tell you that’s necessary but was wayyyy too much for me and I lasted about two weeks. Now I focus on one small shift at a time. Atm, mitigating distraction is it. Less is more if it’s sustainable!)

6. Practise staying through the ikgh.

This one is the hardest. What does it even meannnn to “stay” through discomfort? Only you can really work that out for yourself.

For me, when I notice the urge to task-switch, I experiment. Sometimes I get up and move my body. Other times, I stay seated and fight it. Just to see what happens.

Often, all I need to do is get through that initial urge, call my full self to attention, and resist switching for a few minutes. Then BOOM. I’m in flow.

Other times, I can’t endure it. I need to move. Take a walk. Take a nap. Reset. Be realistic.

This is such a personal practice.

You don't have to obey every impulse your brain throws at you. But if you want to get ahead, you do have to put in the effort to understand how your unique system responds, distracts, settles and creates.

Hopefully some of my trial and error helps. Send this to a friend who might need it, too.

Stay curious,

Paige xo.