How I Work

How much of your week goes into fixing what AI just handed you? Not writing from scratch, just cleaning up, correcting, and nudging a draft that looked fine for about ten seconds before you actually needed it to work.
That endless back and forth has a name. We call it slop fixing, and there is research suggesting it is quietly eating close to a full day of our working week.
In this How I AI episode, Neo and I get into why this happens and the two very different ways of working with AI that decide whether it does. You will hear the difference between gunslinging and architecting, what a proper brief actually sounds like, and how to have a conversation with AI before you ask it to build anything. By the end, you will be getting version one at 90 percent instead of 20.
What you'll learn:
What actually separates AI slop from work that lands
The difference between gunslinging and architecting with AI
What a proper brief for AI actually sounds like
How to have a real conversation with AI before asking it to build anything
Why version one can land at 90 percent instead of 20
Practical AI tools for productivity and focus
Real-world AI workflows used by high performers
How to use AI at work without burning out
Smart shortcuts for managing time and mental load

Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams.
How I AI is a special series within How I Work where Neo and I explore how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm.

My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M
Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)
If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/
Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.
Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au
Credits:
Host: Amantha Imber
Sound Engineer: Martin Imber
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every manager and every parent has met the same wall. Someone who won't engage, won't budge, won't do the thing, no matter how hard you push or how much you offer.
Dr Justin Coulson has spent two decades inside the research explaining why pushing and bribing rarely work, and what actually does.
Justin is a psychologist, bestselling author, host of the TV show Parental Guidance, and father of six daughters, and his work sits inside self-determination theory, one of the most evidence-based bodies of research in psychology.
In this episode, I sit down with Justin to unpack the three basic psychological needs that shift someone from doing something because they have to, to doing it because they're genuinely on board. We also get into his early morning breathwork practice, why he believes boys are the solution rather than the problem, and a story involving his wife, a health retreat and a news website that will make you want to throw your phone into a river.
If you've ever managed someone who just won't engage, or parented a kid who won't do anything without a fight, this conversation will change how you think about motivation altogether.
Justin and I discuss:
The four levels of motivation, from extrinsic to intrinsic, and why chasing intrinsic motivation in a team or a family is setting the bar too high
The three basic psychological needs, relatedness, competence and autonomy, and why autonomy is often the linchpin
Why "autonomy" doesn't mean freedom, and what it actually means in practice
The three simple questions Justin uses with his own kids and with employees to work out where someone sits on the motivation continuum
How he uses breathwork and carbon dioxide tolerance as a daily practice in building resilience
What's really going on with boys today, and why Justin believes a healthy model of masculinity is the answer
Key quotes
"When people understand the value in the activity, when people buy the why, they will choose to do it autonomously, which means that you don't have motivation problems."
"Most motivation problems aren't motivation problems at all. They're rationale problems."
Connect with Justin Coulson on Instagram, LinkedIn and his website. Check out his latest book Boys, and listen to his podcast Happy Families.

If this conversation got you thinking about motivation, I'd also recommend my episode with Dan Pink, where we dig further into the science of what drives us. Listen here.

My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M
Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)
If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/
Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.
Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au
Credits:
Host: Amantha Imber
Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There is a quiet guilt a lot of people carry every time they open ChatGPT. Somewhere between the headlines about data centres and the vague sense that AI is somehow worse for the planet than everything else we do without a second thought, it becomes easier to just feel bad than to actually work out whether that guilt is warranted.
Nobody hands you the comparison points. Is a heavy day of prompting worse than a night of Netflix? Worse than a round of golf? Nobody says.
In this How I AI episode, Neo and I go looking for the real figures. You will hear how an hour of heavy AI use stacks up against an hour of Netflix, why American golf courses use far more water than AI data centres, and the two things you can personally do that make a genuine difference, including one that has nothing to do with AI at all.
What you'll learn:
How an hour of heavy AI use actually compares to an hour of Netflix
Why golf courses use more water than AI data centres, and why nobody is calling to ban golf
What separates the environmental cost of training AI from simply using it
What governments, companies and individuals can each actually do about AI's environmental impact
The one everyday habit that beats cutting your AI use altogether
Practical AI tools for productivity and focus
Real-world AI workflows used by high performers
How to use AI at work without burning out
Smart shortcuts for managing time and mental load
Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams.

How I AI is a special series within How I Work where Neo and I explore how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm.

My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M
Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)
If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/
Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.
Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au
Credits:
Host: Amantha Imber
Sound Engineer: Martin Imber
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's a particular kind of tightness that creeps in when the world feels unpredictable. We tidy the to-do list, tighten the routine, optimise one more thing, all in an attempt to feel a bit more in control.
Oliver Burkeman has a word for this: clenching. And he reckons it's squeezing the life out of us, even when it looks a lot like productivity.
In this episode, I sit down with Oliver Burkeman, New York Times bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks and Meditations for Mortals, and former writer of The Guardian's This Column Will Change Your Life, to talk about his forthcoming book Aliveness and what he calls unclenching, learning to loosen your grip on certainty rather than white-knuckle your way through it.
We get into flexible goals, why urgency is so often someone else's agenda in disguise, and how to stop tying your self-worth to your latest achievement.
If you have ever hit a goal and felt the satisfaction evaporate within minutes, this conversation will change how you think about ambition altogether.
Oliver and I discuss:
What "clenching" is, and why our instinct to grip tighter in uncertain times actually backfires
The insecure overachiever trap, and why hitting a goal rarely feels like enough for long
How Oliver's open list, closed list approach stops you drowning in fifty half-started things
Setting a "no later than" time instead of a strict start time, and why looser goals often get more done
Why urgency is so often someone else's agenda in disguise, and how to tell when it is genuinely yours
What Oliver actually does with the emails he has not gotten to yet
Key quotes
"If you have this feeling of aliveness, even the most difficult challenges are copeable with, and if you don't have this feeling of aliveness, even the most impressive accomplishments are kind of worthless."
"You will do enough, because you will do everything that it's within your capacities and your energy levels and your talents to do, and that just by definition will be all that you could ever have done."
Connect with Oliver Burkeman on X (Twitter), LinkedIn and his website. Check out his latest book Meditations for Mortals and look out for his upcoming book Aliveness in 2027.
If you want more from Oliver, listen back to our earlier conversation on time management, a great companion episode to this one: (https://www.amantha.com/podcasts/want-to-make-time-for-the-things-that-count)

My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M
Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)
If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/
Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.
Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au
Credits:
Host: Amantha Imber
Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Before you paste that customer list, that blood test result or that contract into your favourite AI tool, it's worth pausing for a second. Whatever you hand over doesn't just disappear after you get your answer. It sits somewhere, and depending on the tool and the settings, it might be doing more than just answering your question.
Most people have never actually checked what happens to their data once it goes in or thought about the difference between what's fine to share and what's better redacted first.
In this How I AI episode, Neo and I work through what's actually safe to give AI and what's better left out. We cover how to check your settings so free tools aren't training on your data, how to de-identify sensitive things like health results and contracts, the rules that change once you're at work, and the one question to ask yourself before you upload anything.
What you'll learn:
How to know if AI is quietly training on the data you give it, and how to switch that off
The one question to ask before you upload anything to AI
Why work and home should be treated completely differently when it comes to AI
What to redact from contracts, spreadsheets and client files before sharing them
Where the line sits between using AI as a sounding board and relying on it too much
Practical AI tools for productivity and focus
Real-world AI workflows used by high performers
How to use AI at work without burning out
Smart shortcuts for managing time and mental load
Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams.

How I AI is a special series within How I Work where Neo and I explore how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm.

My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M
Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)
If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/
Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.
Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au
Credits:
Host: Amantha Imber
Sound Engineer: Martin Imber
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.