AI Helped Me Finish My Tasks — Not Overthink

AI made me more productive almost immediately. Tasks closed faster. Drafts completed themselves. Loose ends disappeared. At the end of the day, more boxes were checked than ever before. What took longer to notice was what wasn’t happening anymore. I was finishing work — not thinking through it. Completion Replaced Construction Before AI, finishing something usually meant I’d worked through it. I’d wrestled with ideas, revised assumptions, changed direction midstream. The mess was part of the thinking. AI removed that mess. It delivered: Clean drafts Clear conclusions Obvious next steps The work looked done — even when my understanding wasn’t. Productivity Masked Shallow Engagement The more AI helped me finish, the easier it became to confuse output with insight. I was moving quickly, but: I wasn’t forming new mental models I wasn’t testing ideas deeply I wasn’t sitting with uncertainty AI filled in gaps before I had a chance to notice they existed. The work progressed. My thinking didn