If you’ve been questioning how and when you use AI, you’re not alone. Today I’m sharing the boundaries I chose for using AI after noticing it was becoming a crutch. I share my 4 questions and a real example of how I apply them.

Links

Subscribe to Cat's Momentum YouTube channel.

Want to join Cat live? Subscribe to get a reminder email and a link to the live stream so you can watch the episode live and join the Q&A session.

View and add The Momentum Experiment calendar so you never miss a live recording and Q&A.

Find Cat on Instagram (@catmulvihill)

Submit a question for the podcast.

Join Cat's Email List

Cat's Website

Have you ever been injured and you needed a brace to help you

recover? Well, if so, you were probably cautioned not to

become dependent on the brace and that the only way for your

body to get stronger is to rehabilitate it and especially

strengthening the muscles that support that area of your body.

And if you rely too much on the brace, then your

body can start to depend on it and it can even start to weaken and

atrophy because it doesn't really have to do the work anymore. That's what the

brace is doing. And if you're like many people,

doing your rehab experiences or exercises can be

uncomfortable. Sometimes it can be frustrating. You might not always do them when you're

supposed to because it's so appealing to just lean on the

brace. You're more comfortable with the brace. It also takes less effort and less work.

It's just frankly easier. But that means it's a crutch.

In this case, it could be a literal crutch when you are actually

injured. And this is how I started to feel in

the fall with AI and specifically using

LLMs like ChatGPT. And when

I started using it, really the goal was just remove

friction, help me to do work more efficiently. But

slowly I started to notice a shift and it had

me questioning where the line was between me

doing the work and it doing the work for me.

And that got me thinking, when does AI support

your momentum and your ability to do something compared to when

you start to outsource it and you're no longer the one who's doing it.

And today I'm sharing the boundaries that I created for using

AI, how I use it, and I'll show you a real kind of

current example, actually one that I'm currently working through and how

I apply these. And first, let's just start with

what prompted this decision to establish boundaries, and this

was around 4 months ago. I noticed that instead of

my usual process, which is I start to do my

own work and then I will go over to ChatGPT

when I would get stuck on something and it helped me

overcome that hurdle and say, okay, what am I missing here? Are there some other

ideas? But later I noticed

that I wasn't asking it to

just notice what the gaps were, I actually started to

go over to it. So at first I would say, okay, here's

what I've got. What am I missing? How can I get over this roadblock? Cause

I feel a little stuck. It would generate a list and I would look at

it and just kind of say, okay, this is what I like. This is what

I don't like. But then it started to

slip and then I started to just go to ChatGPT first.

And so I was initiating creativity. From

the, from the get. Instead of me initiating the creativity

and the work and generating myself, I would just kind of go there first. Now

I was telling myself, this is just sparking creativity

faster. I'm kind of seeing a list. I'm ultimately choosing what I wanna work on

and what I don't. But I noticed it was happening faster and faster. And what

was actually happening is I would not even let myself experience

creative discomfort. I would sit there and if it was even

30 seconds or a minute of not being able to solve it on my own,

I would just open up ChatGPT and go there. And so my

patience for just sitting to think about an idea

was becoming really diminished. And what started out as a tool

just for efficiency to kind of keep me going actually started to

erode my trust in myself to be able to generate these

ideas, to brainstorm, and to put something together in a coherent

fashion. And once I realized that that was happening

and how quickly I was gravitating to AI,

I started to think I need to make a change because I do not want

to continue down this slope because to me it's a downward slope.

So I'm going to share the questions that I came up with. I didn't come

up with them at first. I sort of over time came up with them, but

at first just started thinking, don't default, let yourself be uncomfortable.

However, I eventually came up with 4 and I'm going to share these with you.

So the first one is a question you may have heard me

say before, and that's, what is the problem I'm trying to solve?

So anytime I feel stuck and I can tell that I am

gravitating or I could use AI, I want to say, what is the actual problem

I am trying to solve here? I find this useful for almost

anything, especially if you're going to invest time, effort, or money.

Into something is really being clear on what are you trying to accomplish. But

then the second question, and this is really, really, really important for

boundaries, is the help I need

external or internal? And I'm going to spend a little bit of time, this one's

really important, so I'm actually going to spend a little bit of time on this

one, but that is my second question. The third

question is just, can AI help solve this? Is

this a viable solution for me? And then finally,

even if it can, is AI the best option? Because there still might

be some better options out there. So let's actually take a moment to

talk about this external versus internal.

When I say this, I mean external, there is just a

real gap that exists. You don't have the answer.

You don't have the solution, or maybe you don't have the skills.

If I, you know, someone says, hey, there are changes on how

you need to file your taxes this year, that is a true gap. I need

to look externally for help because me sitting on my own, I'm never going to

come up with it on my own. I do not have that information and I

need external help. Now, internal, this is

where you are capable of solving that problem.

You might need to work through it. It might be a little bit uncomfortable and

you could do this on your own, but You could also get help from someone

else. Oftentimes, even if you're making an internal decision choice

or figuring something out on your own, you can still ask for help and

make a more informed choice. It's like the, the difference between say

hiring a consultant versus hiring a coach. If you hire

a consultant, it's because they have expertise that you are

missing, and so you are hiring them cuz you're like, tell me

what I need to know because that's missing, that, that's external.

Coaches, on the other hand, are intent— the

intention is the coach helps the individual

come up with the answer. So I am providing a space if I'm

coaching to say, hey, what are your options? What should you choose? What do you

think? And you're, you're helping them. So there are two different things. It's external versus

internal. Now, I think this is really important

because when it comes to the internal things, this is

where I was starting to slip. Coming up with content,

creating something, writing something, um, building a

product, whatever that is, that is something that's coming internally. I'm

the one who's generating it. I'm the one who's coming up with it, and I'm

the one who's thinking it through. And if I keep

leaning on AI to help with that, then all of

a sudden it starts to become external. And this is where I think the

biggest red flag for me went off. Now, a big issue

is that it is faster and easier to

outsource this internal stuff. And honestly, we're in a

culture where a lot of people say, just tell me what to do.

And the more you do this, then the less you

strengthen your own problem-solving muscles.

You know, there's this trend on our discussion

online that someone on Instagram posted a bean soup

recipe, and one of the people in the comments says, but what if I don't

eat beans? Like just not even, not even taking a moment to

think. It's just instantly going out there and just saying, but what about

this? Just tell me what to, what do I do? What do I do? And

it becomes this helplessness. And because I used to work

in a university, uh, over a 15-year period,

I noticed a really big shift in, as a staff member

working with students that over the years, as we saw the

sort of rise of what they call the helicopter parent. I

came across more and more students who were living on their own for the

first time, and they could not solve their own problems.

Their parents had solved so many of their problems that the students

did not trust themselves. They didn't even know if they could

solve their own problem. They were so used to just having someone else take care

of it. They just didn't know what to do. They did not trust themselves. They

also had no experience, and so they really had no

evidence that they could do this. And I think this is the, the threat

that I'm seeing both for me as an individual starting to lean

on it for what I could solve internally and where do I

draw that line? So all this to say, if something is

external, I don't really have qualms or concerns about asking AI for help, just like

I would go to Google or look something up in a dictionary, just go find

the answer. That is not an issue. But internal, that is

where I really want to make sure that I am using these boundaries that

I've set in place. That's where I want want to pause, and that's where I'm

really trying to protect myself and avoid using AI as a crutch

for internal things, like things that I should or

can solve on my own. Let's get into a real

example, which is that in recent months, as I've kind of

gradually returned to my business after taking a fairly significant

break last year, I have been putting my mind

towards what does the rest of the year look like? What does my business look

like? And this has a combination of

external, internal things that I need help with. For example, if

I am putting together revenue projections and budgeting, I

may need to do some research on, okay, what are some rates?

What are the other options that are out there while I am putting together

a business plan? That, no problem. Go to

AI. That can help me just generate and do research faster. However, when it comes

to something like putting together revenue projections based on

some of the research I've done and based on some of the stuff I know

about my business in the past. Question 3, I

said, can AI help solve this problem? Yes, AI could

put together a budget projection. It could even do some scenario

planning. However, question 4, is this the best tool?

For me personally, I actually much rather have a spreadsheet.

So that's what I did. Instead of just going to ChatGPT and saying, hey, put

together some projections. I just opened a spreadsheet and I

created a spreadsheet I can come back to over and over. I can put

different scenarios in it and I just have a little bit more control over it,

but also it's one file that I have access to instead of having to go

back and, and find an old chat or export something that it said. And by

being engaged with creating this spreadsheet, I actually feel like I am more

engaged with the problem solving. So to me, it might take a little bit of

extra time, but I feel more connected to it. I, and it's something I

can keep coming back to over and over again. Now for something that's a

little bit more internal, that's decision-making. And so when it comes

to business planning decisions about what do I

offer, when do I work on things, how do I approach my

business, that is very, very internal.

Now it doesn't mean it's not without help. So if I am researching

different, say, competitor, competitors or offerings, or

what are people doing when they have this problem? What, what are they seeking out?

Not a problem. Again, research, go outside. But when it comes to what do I

actually decide to do for myself and my business,

I'm making sure that I'm not outsourcing that decision. So the way

that I have approached this so far, cuz I'm still in it, the very first

thing I did is pen to paper, just write,

connect with my brain, let everything flow. And if, even if I get stuck,

the stream of consciousness, consciousness writing tends to really help me

get things on the page and helps me see things. Then

the next best thing for me is go to the people that I

trust, people who know me and they know enough about the business that I can

say, hey, here are all the things I'm thinking about. Here's some of the decisions

that I'm grappling with, and here's where maybe

I feel a little bit muddied and I'm not quite sure where to go. Now,

after some of those decisions, I did actually embrace

AI But I decided to use it and prompt it like a

coach. And before I even started a conversation,

I went into the page, um, in this case I was

using Notion, where I wrote down, okay, what are all the summaries

of the key issues, the things I'm considering, what do I, what have I tried

before, what do I know I want, what are the non-negotiables, what are some of

the options that I have, put all of that on the page, all

just me generating that. And then say,

what am I missing here? What questions have I not asked myself? And

starting to prompt it to act more like a coach where it's, it's just generating

a bunch of questions. And that's something that is very convenient for

someone who works on their own because they might not necessarily be able to jump

on a call and have that. And it, it does have some

really good high quality questions because it's able to pull from a lot

of information online. But then

I will start to notice anytime I've done this where I say, you know, what

questions am I missing? What do I need to consider? It will eventually start

to try to direct me into, okay, now we've identified these and this is the

plan you should go. I always stop right there. I do not take

any of its decisions for granted. And I actually just kind of ignore if it

starts to act like it's made a decision. And that's when I go back to

writing and discussions with trusted people. And it,

it so can be part of the process. It can be acting like hiring a

business coach, but it is just one piece. And I think it needs to

be part of something bigger. And at the end of the day, if you are

making a decision that really impacts you, you should feel like you were

involved and you were in control of that scenario and ultimately what

you decide. For me, this whole

thing is about being intentional and it's about using your

discernment. Which often means taking a pause, which is

difficult in this race with AI of just faster, faster,

faster. You've got to be using it. If you're not already embracing it and using

it, you're already behind. A lot of the language is very fear-based and it's

also very reactionary that I see people having.

And it makes it very tempting to lean on it as a crutch.

And that's— our brains actually want that, by the way. Our brains crave

efficiency. They crave shortcuts. They take mental shortcuts all the time.

They're constantly finding ways to be efficient. So it makes sense that we

would lean on something. It's like, hey, my brain's learning this is faster. This is

more convenient. I don't have to be uncomfortable. I'm just going to go to the

faster thing. So you have to pump the brakes and maybe even put

physical boundaries, have constraints, use a pen and paper where you

can't just look it up or use AI. Now, I also want to address

creative work because my example came with more strategy and business

planning, but For creative work, the way that I

approach this as well, that's an internal thing. I am someone who is

generating content. And so I will always start with

me. I never go to AI first. I always start

with generating as much as possible. I also will sit in

the discomfort if things aren't coming right away. If ideas don't

flow, just like a lot of writers will say, just as long as

to sit in the seat, even if you don't write a word. You can't do

anything else, just sit in the seat. So I'm trying to embrace some of those

things that people have used for years with creative work,

because I don't want to weaken my creative

muscle. I don't wanna weaken my patience, and I don't wanna

weaken my self-trust. I want all of those

things to get stronger, and I know that a crutch won't

help me do that.